ISP Lightning Fibre Appoints Interim CEO as Ben Ferriman Exits

Network builder and UK broadband ISP Lightning Fibre, which is deploying a multi-gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of Sussex and Kent (England), has today announced the appointment of an interim CEO, Stefan Stanislawsk, to replace the company’s outgoing boss and founder, Ben Ferriman.

The operator, which is backed by private equity firm Foresight (here), first began their rollout in 2019 and was initially focused on deploying across the Eastbourne, Hastings, Bexhill, Hailsham, St Leonard’s, Haywards Heath, Tenterden, Heathfield and Broad Oak areas of East Sussex and Kent (here).

Sadly, we haven’t had a solid progress update from this alternative network provider since September 2022, when they reported being home to a total of 60,000 premises passed and were initially aiming to reach 140,000 premises (i.e. this was their fully funded build, rather than a longer-term target). But we do note that they recently went live across another 6,500 premises in Langney – part of their Eastbourne patch.

Nevertheless, the Eastbourne-based AltNet has today announced that they’re entering their “next phase of growth” and as part of that they’ve appointed Stefan Stanislawski to be their new, interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Stefan said:

“Lightning Fibre is a well-established company, with a strong brand, and I am excited to take on this role and confident I can help Lightning Fibre build on its success thus far.”

The announcement on their website makes no mention of what has happened to the company’s former CEO and founder, Ben Ferriman, who at the time of writing is currently still listing himself as CEO on LinkedIn. But it’s entirely possible that he may have already announced his departure, and we’ve simply forgotten about it or overlooked the news somewhere (Companies Houses reports that Ben was terminated as a Director on 9th June 2023).

Interestingly, Stefan is also the CEO of Lightning Fibre’s sister company, Connect Fibre, who are both backed by Foresight Group. But the PR says that both companies will continue to operate independently, even though that’s now a bit of a contradiction when sharing the same boss. On the other hand, Stefan is only an “interim” CEO, which suggests that they haven’t had enough time to find a permanent replacement for Ben.