Four members were elected to join and serve the FBA Board

The Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) today announced its 2026 Board of Directors, representing a diverse range of market segments from across the fiber broadband industry. The 2026 Board of Directors will support the Association in its current stage of growth as more service providers, policymakers, and communities build out our nation’s critical infrastructure for advanced communications, mobile networks, smart grid modernization, artificial intelligence, quantum networks, and more innovations of the future.

“Our industry is at a defining moment, and FBA’s success is driven by the exceptional leaders who step forward to support our organization,” said Gary Bolton, President and CEO at FBA. “The 2026 Board brings together an extraordinary group of industry leaders who understand both the opportunity and responsibility before us. I’m deeply impressed by their dedication and the strength of leadership they bring to FBA. This Board will play a critical role in supporting our mission and sustaining the momentum of fiber deployment during this next phase of North American growth.”

2025 Board Chair, Ariane Schaffer, Head of U.S. Federal and State Policy at GFiber, was re-elected for a three-year term, as was Roger Timmerman, CEO, UTOPIA Fiber. Elected for their first Board term were Ashley Travers, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at KGPCo, and Brendan O’Boyle, National Sales Manager for Communications Markets at PLP. Travers will continue to serve as the Chair of the FBA Supply Chain Working Group and leads FBA’s partnership with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. O’Boyle has long served FBA, is the Chair of the Deployment Specialist Committee, Co-Chair of the FBA Education Committee, and played key roles in FBA’s Technology Committee and in the development of FBA’s OpTIC Path™ program. He also won FBA’s Photon Award in 2023 for his exceptional level of volunteer commitment and service to FBA and the broader broadband community.

In the FBA Board officer elections, Ashley Brown, Senior Director of Field and Partner Marketing at Adtran, will serve as the 2026 FBA Board Chair. Brown is an experienced leader in fiber deployment, operations, marketing, and policy and has been heavily involved in FBA initiatives. This is her third year serving the FBA Board of Directors—most recently serving as the 2025 FBA Board Vice Chair—and she will continue to serve as the Board Liaison for the Education, Conference, and Women in Fiber Committees.

The full 2026 Board of Directors and Board Officers includes the following fiber broadband industry leaders:

• Chair: Ashley Brown, Senior Director, Field and Partner Marketing, Adtran
• Vice Chair: Evann Freeman, Vice President, Government & Community Relations, EPB of Chattanooga
• Secretary: Rob Shema, Director of Corporate Development and Government Affairs, altafiber
• Treasurer: Jimmy Todd, CEO and General Manager, Nex-Tech
• Sachin Gupta, Vice President, Business and Technology Strategies, Centranet
• Scott Jackson, National Market Manager – Broadband, Graybar
• Brendan O’Boyle, National Sales Manager, Communications Markets, PLP
• Ariane Schaffer, Head of U.S. Federal and State Policy, GFiber
• Roger Timmerman, CEO, UTOPIA Fiber
• Ashley Travers, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, KGPCo
• Bob Whitman, Vice President, Market and Product Strategy, Corning

As of December 31, 2025, Mark Boxer will reach the end of his three-year Board term. Boxer, Technical Manager of Solutions and Applications Engineering at Lightera, served on the Board of Directors for two three-year terms and was the Board Liaison for the Technology Committee, Deployment Specialists Committee, Canadian Working Group, and Education Committee. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Education Committee and will retain that position moving forward. Mark championed the development of FBA’s nationally acclaimed OpTIC Path™ fiber technician program that now has over 1,200 graduates and growing, 75% of which are military veterans. Mark has been a significant part of FBA for over two decades and was awarded the Photon Award for his high-level of dedication in 2019 and 2021. He also earned FBA’s highest honor, the Chairman’s Award in 2024. Mark will continue to provide leadership support for FBA’s top initiatives in education, workforce development, and technology innovation going forward.

The 2026 Board of Directors elections were held at the Fiber Broadband Association’s 2025 Premier Members Meeting, December 8-9, in Palm Springs, California. This is the second consecutive year FBA has added an additional seat to the Board and will add one more seat next year for a total of 12 members in 2027. Subscribe to FBA’s Fiber Forward Weekly newsletter here to stay updated on the latest FBA developments.

About the Fiber Broadband Association

The Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) is the voice of fiber, helping providers, policy makers, and communities make informed decisions about how, where, and why to build better fiber broadband networks. FBA is the largest and only trade association that represents the complete fiber ecosystem of service providers, manufacturers, industry experts, and deployment specialists. Since 2001, FBA and its members have worked to advance fiber broadband deployment to accelerate innovation and increase quality of life by enabling every community to leverage the economic and societal benefits that only fiber can deliver. The Fiber Broadband Association is part of the Fibre Council Global Alliance, which is a platform of six global FTTH Councils in North America, LATAM, Europe, MENA, APAC, and South Africa. Learn more at fiberbroadband.org.

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