Smithville promotes Dave Brodin to COO, expands on previous role as chief technology officer

ELLETTSVILLE (Indiana) – Expanding on his previous role as chief technology officer, Smithville has promoted Dave Brodin to the role of chief operating officer (COO), according to Darby A. McCarty, Chairman and CEO. “Dave has led multiple technology and development initiatives that have significantly raised the bar at Smithville,” she said. “From a network technology perspective, Smithville has grown to match or exceed our competitor’s platforms under Dave’s technology leadership, which gives us a real advantage for both our business and residential customers.”

Ms. McCarty noted that Brodin had already been fulfilling many of the expectations of the COO position, a post previously held by new Smithville President John Patten, who developed a close working relationship with Brodin.

“With his deep background in network management, IT and systems engineering, coupled with a proven capacity to effectively organize complex teams, Dave will continue to help Smithville improve its competitive position as a business and technology leader,” said Patten. “He is very forward-looking in his technology and expansion vision for Smithville, and knows how to get things done.”

“Smithville represents an agile and progressive technology company that is poised to expand its industry leadership position and improve its already strong history of outstanding customer service,” said Brodin. “I look forward to an expanded role of helping Smithville maintain its cultural focus on excellence.”

Brodin is a recognized industry expert, having spoken and participated in panels at a variety of national conferences on broadband development and network management.

First joining Smithville in 2001 as the company’s network operations manager, Brodin was promoted to chief technology officer in 2011, where he was responsible for all aspects of overall Smithville technology vision, network and system design, service implementation, and support for residential, business, and enterprise customers.  In his prior role he managed Network Engineering, Outside Plant Engineering, Corporate IT, Technical Support, and Project Management departments for Smithville.

Over the past five years Brodin launched or oversaw a number of major initiatives at Smithville, including the current fiber overbuild in Jasper, the deployment of a 17-node DWDM ring for residential and business services throughout southern Indiana, a cost-saving initiative that reduced bandwidth costs by 29% and increased network capacity by 160%, and led a successful upgrade that completely replaced the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) infrastructure at Smithville.

Prior to joining Smithville, Brodin held a variety of management positions, including serving as the systems engineering manager for the City of Bloomington (Indiana). He served on the adjunct faculty of Ivy Tech Community College from 1997 to 2011.

In addition to a variety of CISCO professional certifications, Brodin holds a Master of Science degree in computer science from Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, Ohio), as well as bachelors of science degrees in computer science and chemistry from the same university.

Smithville, which began using the brand name Smithville Fiber in 2015 to reflect its long-term commitment to a 21st century fiber platform, is a fiber-optics industry pioneer in Indiana. It began a multi-year $100 million major system fiber overbuild of its older telephone customer base in 2008, and has since developed a number of privately financed new fiber installations in Jasper, Danville and elsewhere. These newer private developments deploy advanced fiber technology that allows the full capacity of a gigabit of connectivity to both residents and businesses.

Smithville Fiber’s continuing commitment to fiber-based communications innovation has earned it a Top 100 broadband national ranking seven years in a row.

About Smithville Fiber and Smithville Communications – Nationally recognized as a Top 100 Broadband Company, privately owned Smithville Fiber is Indiana’s largest independent telecom company with more than 140 employees. With an earned reputation as a communications technology innovator, Smithville is presently deploying Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) and other enhanced fiber services to its business and residential customers. These services, which range up to 10 Gbps for enterprise operations, provide a platform for the fastest connectivity available in Indiana to business, institutions and consumers. The company develops the Smithville GigaCity_TM technology platform and provides fiber-based connectivity, data consulting, network management and managed services for businesses, university campuses, biotechnology companies, healthcare providers, government offices, residential centers, communities, and other entities, including the cities of Jasper and Danville (Indiana). Smithville also manages a legacy copper communication network in rural south central Indiana, and began a system-wide effort to upgrade rural capacity with a fiber-to-the-cabinet initiative in 2014. The company currently serves about 23,000 businesses and residences in southern and central Indiana. For more information, please visitwww.smithville.com.