Jim Hanley is a veteran telecom entrepreneur and CEO with 11+ years formal experience leading fiber and broadband ventures and a multi-decade track record of founding and scaling connectivity businesses. He founded and operated citywide open-access fiber companies (Netly, TeraFiber) and built alternatives to incumbents (netBlazr), combining hands-on operational leadership with strategy-to-execution rigor. Jim excels in early-stage, turnaround, and operator-facing roles—driving product, sales and marketing transformations that produce measurable growth and fair-market access for service providers and communities. His background spans carrier, enterprise and public-sector connectivity including FirstNet and Smart City/IoT initiatives, reflecting deep domain expertise across FTTH/FTTB and wireless services. A Twin-Degree technologist-business leader with an engineering & economics BA from Brown and an MBA from Michigan, he pairs technical fluency with investor and advisory experience across multiple startups. Less obvious: he repeatedly chooses open-access business models, signaling a consistent mission to democratize network infrastructure rather than merely capture end-user revenue.
11 years of coding experience
20 years of employment as a software developer
BA Engineering and Economics, BA Engineering and Economics at Brown University
MBA Marketing and General Management, MBA Marketing and General Management at University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business
Contributions:17 pushes, 3 branches in 2 years 4 months
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