Manuel Sampedro

Chief Operating Officer

As Chief Operating Officer of Brightspeed, Manuel Sampedro is responsible for ensuring Brightspeed’s operations team leverages state-of-the-art technology to deliver on the company’s promise to provide best-in-class customer service and a faster, more reliable network across the company’s footprint.

Manuel brings more than 25 years of telecommunications experience to his role. Prior to Brightspeed, he served as senior vice president of global business transformation at Verizon, where he led the company’s business transformation initiatives from development to execution. He also led the integration of Verizon’s Tracfone acquisition from America Movil in 2021. Manuel spent most of his career at Verizon, advancing through regional and national management roles in operations.

Manuel earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in International Business from Towson University and his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Baltimore. Additionally, he earned a masters certificate in project management from George Washington University.

Monty Garrett

Chief Financial Officer

Monty Garrett brings more than 35 years of finance expertise, including decades in the telecom industry, to his role as Brightspeed’s Chief Financial Officer. As CFO, Monty is responsible for the company’s finance, accounting and treasury operations and directs capital planning and investment initiatives to drive the company’s $2 billion fiber optics transformation plan. His top priorities are to ensure accurate and timely reporting of financials, analysis, cash movement and key metrics to help drive growth.

Monty joined Brightspeed in early September as the company’s controller. Before joining the company, he spent more than 25 years at Verizon in various financial leadership roles during two different periods, ultimately serving as senior vice president of accounting and senior vice president of internal audit. Monty also served as chief accounting officer and chief financial officer of Doosan Infracore International (Bobcat) and as a member of the assurance practice at Ernst & Young.

Monty earned his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from The Citadel and two Master of Business Administration degrees — one from California State University and another from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Ashok Kumar

Chief Technology Officer

Ashok Kumar serves as Chief Technology Officer, where he is responsible for developing the systems and technology to support the end-to-end fiber optics network transformation, from the initial build to sales to ongoing operations. Ashok brings more than 30 years of technology experience within the telecommunications industry to Brightspeed.

Earlier in his career, Ashok founded the technology team at Verizon to build systems that successfully ran the first large scale deployment of fiber-to-the-home network and helped scale it to the most reliable broadband network in the U.S.

Later in his career at Verizon, as vice president of digital transformation for Verizon’s wireless and broadband offering, Fios, Ashok was responsible for building the digital experience that connected more than 100 million customers seamlessly from the mobile app, web and brick and mortar stores. Under his leadership, the company grew digital sales by 400 percent within 18 months driven by his team’s development of the company’s award-winning app.

Ashok joined India’s Premier Institute, Indian Institute of Technology or IIT, where he earned his Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering.

Ashok holds multiple patents for his innovations in telecom systems technology.

Jeff Lowney

EVP and Chief Commercial Officer, Enterprise and Wholesale

Jeff Lowney joins Brightspeed with an enviable record of transforming underperforming telecommunications markets. As the Chief Commercial Officer for Enterprise and Wholesale, Jeff is responsible for driving sales and service for businesses in the rural and suburban areas within Brightspeed’s 20-state footprint. His focus is on customer retention and growth while helping customers transition to fiber technology and grow their businesses with our innovative product offerings.

Jeff’s more than 20-year career includes leadership roles with Sprint, AT&T, TW Telecom/Level 3 (now Lumen Technologies), and Windstream. His most recent role was president of Windstream Kinetic strategic accounts division where he was responsible for leading the organization’s sales division, driving high margin revenue growth to monetize Windstream’s $2 billion fiber investment strategy. Prior to joining Windstream, Jeff spent more than a decade at Lumen Technologies in various leadership roles driving sales and revenue for the company.

Jeff earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point and his Master of Business Administration from Cardinal Stritch University. He also attended the University of Denver, Daniels College of Business Executive Education Program.

Jeff is an active member of the Special Olympics and supports other local nonprofit organizations. 

Courtland Madock

Chief Marketing Officer

As Brightspeed’s Chief Marketing Officer, Courtland Madock is responsible for growing sales, marketing the company’s innovative product line, creating an exceptional customer experience, and building recognition of the Brightspeed brand. Courtland leads a customer experience team of more than 500 marketing, sales and customer service professionals. She and her team are focused on building the Brightspeed brand to be synonymous with speed, reliability and best-in-class service.

Courtland joined Brightspeed after serving in various roles at U.S. Cellular for more than a decade, most recently as vice president of marketing, leading the marketing organization to achieve subscriber and revenue goals. During her tenure, she led the transformation of the company’s high-speed internet product line and grew market share in a fiercely competitive and predominantly rural consumer footprint.

Courtland earned her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Iowa and her Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Fierce Wireless honored Courtland with its Rising Star award in 2020. 

Colon McLean

Chief Human Resources Officer

Colon McLean serves as Chief Human Resources Officer for Brightspeed, responsible for building and leading all people-related programs and establishing and sustaining the company’s customer-focused culture. Known for leading executive teams through complex, global business and people transactions, Colon brings decades of experience from large-scale public and private equity backed companies to his role at Brightspeed.

Under Colon’s leadership the transition of thousands of Lumen employees to Brightspeed was transparent and seamless. Colon and his team ensure that the Brightspeed work environment is inclusive and diverse as the company continues to grow to meet the needs of building a state-of-the-art broadband network across 20 states.

Colon most recently led human resources for Alight Solutions, a Blackstone portfolio company, where he was responsible for all people-related programs and led HR due diligence, integration and value realization of four acquisitions. Additionally, Colon championed the company's purpose and values, driving high levels of engagement, resulting in certification as a Great Place to Work in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Prior to Alight Solutions, he served as Chief Human Resources Officer at two other companies following a two-decade career at Duke Energy where he became co-head of human resources.

Colon earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Wingate University and his Master of Business Administration from Wake Forest University.

Colon was an active member of the HR Management Association of Chicago, serving as a member and board chair.

Steve Tugentman

Chief Legal Officer

As Brightspeed’s Chief Legal Officer, Steve Tugentman and his team, together with leadership, ensures the company maintains its culture of integrity, ethics and compliance; establishes simple, agile and business-friendly policies and procedures; and partners with business unit leaders to drive growth.

With 30 years in the telecommunications industry, Steve spent the majority of his career at Verizon, joining that company through an acquisition and continuing to grow his career for the next three decades. He most recently served as senior vice president and general counsel at Verizon, leading the legal function that supported the marketing and operations of global enterprise, government contracts, consumer and mass business, network operations and partner solutions. He managed more than 380 legal professionals helping to drive a culture of accountability, integrity and compliance.

Steve earned his Bachelor of Arts from The City University of New York and his Juris Doctorate from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.

Steve was a board member of the Better Business Bureau in Washington D.C for ten years.

Amy Wulfestieg

Chief Communications Officer

Amy Wulfestieg has spent her entire career driving company cultures through internal and external communications strategy and execution, managing crisis communications and building high performing communications teams. As Brightspeed’s Chief Communications Officer, Amy is responsible for leading the company’s communications function, including internal and external communications, media relations, organizational change management and reputation management. Her top priority is delivering a well-coordinated, integrated set of messages to ensure all stakeholders understand Brightspeed’s powerful purpose, while creating a warm, welcoming environment for employees where they feel supported and excited for the company’s future.

Amy came to Brightspeed from Nordstrom where she led the company’s internal communications department responsible for developing and sharing the stories that showcase the company’s customer-first culture to its more than 60,000 employees. Prior to joining Nordstrom, she served as Alight Solutions’ Executive Vice President of Communications where she led a team that designed and led engagement and communications strategies as well as comprehensive communications planning for mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, and a planned IPO.

Amy earned her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Valparaiso University and her Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.