Vertical Bridge REIT, LLC (“Vertical Bridge” or “the Company”), the largest private owner and operator of communications infrastructure in the United States, today announced the promotion of two of its longest serving leaders to Executive Vice President. Johnny Crawford was named Executive Vice President of Development, and Bob Paige was appointed Executive Vice President of Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate Development.
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“Bob and Johnny have been leaders at Vertical Bridge since our founding and have each played critical roles in our strong growth,” said Co-founder and CEO Alex Gellman. “Without Bob and Johnny, it is very hard to envision Vertical Bridge achieving its position as the largest private tower company and largest tower builder in the United States. It is truly a pleasure to recognize their efforts and achievements.”
Paige oversees the Company’s acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategic initiatives. Before joining Vertical Bridge, he was Senior Vice President at Brown Brothers Harriman, where he advised wireless and wireline companies on mergers and acquisitions, and before that, served the telecommunications industry at Falkenberg Capital Corporation where he was a Managing Director.
“I have very much enjoyed helping Vertical Bridge grow from a startup to becoming the only private tower company at scale in the U.S.,” said Paige. “I’m proud of our significant transactions to date, and look forward to continuing to work with a great group of partners within management and our investor base.”
Crawford oversees sales and delivery of build-to-suit opportunities. Before joining Vertical Bridge, he was a partner in Optima Towers, a site development company in the Southeast. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Business Development at SBA Network Services where he was responsible for sales to SBA’s national customers. Earlier in his career he served as Vice President of Engineering and Operations for Airgate PCS, a Sprint PCS affiliate and as Director of Engineering and Operations for Sprint, where he launched one of the first PCS markets in the U.S.
“It’s been fun assembling and guiding the team that has now built more than 2,000 towers and counting,” Crawford said. “Our pipeline of opportunities is large and growing, and we’re excited about 2022 and beyond because there is much more to come.”
Crawford and Paige are key members of the experienced Vertical Bridge leadership team led by Gellman and which includes Marc Ganzi, Co-founder and Executive Chairman; Bernard Borghei, Co-founder and Executive Vice President of Operations; Michael Belski, Co-founder and Executive Vice President of Leasing and Marketing; Dale Carey, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Convergence; Bob Glosson, Executive Vice President of Real Estate and Technology, Michael Romaniw, Chief Financial Officer; and Daniel Marinberg, General Counsel.
About Vertical Bridge
Vertical Bridge REIT, LLC is the largest private owner and operator of communications infrastructure and locations in the United States, with a portfolio of more than 318,000 sites, including over 9,000 owned and master-leased towers and the nation’s largest and tallest collection of broadcast tower sites. The Company’s portfolio spreads across all 50 states and Puerto Rico and is comprised of towers, rooftops, billboards, utility attachments, convenience stores and other locations in support of wireless network deployments. In addition to colocation, Vertical Bridge offers build-to-suit, edge data centers and inbuilding wireless network solutions