Former MegaPath Channel Chief Returns As President
As part of MegaPath's management shake-up, Foster is succeeding Bruce Chatterley, who has "departed the company to pursue other opportunities," according to a statement.
The moves, which were first reported by Channel Partners late Friday, were officially confirmed by MegaPath Monday following several days of channel partner speculation.
Before leaving the company in January 2011, Foster had spent 10 years at MegaPath, most recently as executive vice president of sales and marketing. In his new role, Foster will have responsibility for MegaPath Business Markets' P&L, and oversee enterprise and SMB sales, product development, product management and marketing.
"After a brief departure, I am excited to return to MegaPath and help transform the company into the industry's most successful provider of voice, security and connectivity services," said Foster in a statement. "Following last year's merger, MegaPath is dedicating significant resources into our networking footprint, technology and customer service, which will be the cornerstones of our success moving forward. This is an exciting time for the company and I am energized by the opportunities ahead of us."
MegaPath merged with first Covad, then Speakeasy in 2010, forming what the combined company, now known as MegaPath, described as a "next-generation CLEC."
Outgoing MegaPath President Chatterley, in an interview with CRN last fall, said MegaPath's goal was to "create what we call a managed services local exchange carrier: lead with applications and value-added services and use the underlying network to differentiate the delivery of those."
In his new role, Foster reports to D. Craig Young, MegaPath's chairman and CEO.
"MegaPath has a huge market opportunity, delivering leading-edge hosted voice and fully-managed security and MPLS services to organizations of all sizes, and this requires a leader who understands the complexity of our customers' communications requirements," Young said in a statement. "Having worked with MegaPath's customers for more than 10 years, Dan knows this market and what it takes to be successful. His dedication to partners and end-users will significantly set MegaPath apart from other vendors in our space."
MegaPath said that Chris Gellos, who was named Foster's replacement back in January, will stay in his role as senior vice president, business sales. Gellos oversees MegaPath's direct and channel sales teams.
Following the mergers, MegaPath also recently completed the sale of its NextWeb subsidiary, which did business as Covad Wireless, to TelePacific Communications.