“I am delighted to be joining Nextgenaccess as Chairman and look forward to working closely with the highly talented senior management team,” said Steven Marshall. “The time is right for Nextgenaccess to be scaling up operations and leveraging its innovative solutions for enabling faster and more cost-effective full fibre infrastructure deployment.”
He added: “There is a major digital connectivity deficit in the UK which needs addressing urgently to drive underlying economic growth. This is recognised by the government and OFCOM who are encouraging investment in this area. Nextgenaccess is delighted to be part of such an important imperative.”
Steven is currently on the advisory board of Allied Minds Plc and is a Senior Executive Advisor to Federated Wireless. He holds a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Building and Civil Engineering from the University of Manchester, and an MBA from the Manchester Business School. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Building, the Institute of Management and the Institute of Directors.
Nextgenaccess recently secured a £22 million investment from the National Digital Infrastructure Fund (NDIF) to develop its UK 10Gb fibre network. NDIF, a commercial fund established in 2017 by Amber Infrastructure Group, has acquired a significant minority shareholding in Nextgenaccess. The Amber Infrastructure Group has over £8 billion under management with interests in energy, property and transport.
Khalid Naqib, Senior Investment Director, Amber Infrastructure, said: “Steven is a highly accomplished leader in global telecoms infrastructure with a rare depth of financial and strategic acumen. As NextGenAccess enters this exciting new phase, I can’t think of a better person to chair the business and help chart its growth. Following on from Bob Falconer’s recent appointment to the board, we now have two seasoned industry experts who have operated in some of the world’s key telecoms and infrastructure roles, and I have no doubt that NextGenAccess will benefit immeasurably from their judgment, insights and counsel as it builds out the infrastructure needed to deliver a gigabit future for the UK.”