Rick Calder, President & CEO, GTT
The 2017 Leading Lights Awards were presented on May 15, 2017, as part of Light Reading’s Big Communications Event in Austin, Texas. Now in its thirteenth year, the Leading Lights Awards honor the top companies in the communications industry across 23 different award categories.
Among the accolades, the Leading Lights Company of the Year (Public) award recognizes a publicly listed company that stands out from competitors and demonstrates a commitment to growth and innovation. This year, that distinction went to GTT Communications, Inc. (NYSE: GTT).
“GTT is honored to be recognized as Company of the Year,” commented Rick Calder, GTT president and CEO, about the achievement. “We are committed to being the industry’s challenger brand, connecting people and organizations around the world through our expansive global network and comprehensive portfolio of cloud networking services.”
The award win reflects GTT’s success in the market, including its explosive revenue growth of 41.3% from 2015 to 2016. Also, this past January, GTT acquired Hibernia Networks. The acquisition included five subsea cables, including Hibernia Express, the lowest latency transatlantic cable system, eight cable landing stations, and new global points of presence, expanding GTT’s Tier 1 IP network to over 300 in total. Additionally, the absorption of Hibernia Networks provides GTT with optical and low latency transport, video and CDN services.
The Leading Lights Company of the Year (Public) award win comes on the heels of GTT’s three Gold Stevie Awards in the 15th Annual American Business Awards earlier in the month. The company won gold wins across Telecommunications Company of the Year; Fastest-Growing Company of the Year – Up to 2,500 Employees; and Executive of the Year, Telecommunications categories.