Lumos Shifts Gears: New Leaders to Master Growth After CEO's Exit

HIGH POINT, NC – January 09, 2026 – Fiber broadband provider Lumos is navigating a significant leadership transition, positioning itself for a new phase of operational consolidation after a period of explosive growth. The company announced the planned retirement of CEO Brian Stading at the end of the first quarter, while simultaneously promoting two key internal leaders, David Smith to Chief Operating Officer and Josh Many to Chief Network Officer.

This strategic shuffle signals a pivotal moment for the rapidly expanding company. As Stading, the architect of its recent aggressive footprint expansion, steps down, the promotions of long-time operational veterans suggest a deliberate pivot from pure growth to mastering the scale it has achieved. The move comes as Lumos deepens its crucial partnership with T-Mobile and competes in an increasingly crowded and capital-intensive fiber broadband market.

The Stading Era: A Legacy of Rapid Expansion

Since taking the helm in August 2022, Brian Stading has presided over a period of remarkable transformation for Lumos. Under his leadership, the company embarked on an ambitious buildout that dramatically reshaped its presence in the American broadband landscape. The company reports that Stading's tenure saw the addition of nearly 700,000 new home passings, a metric that underscores an intense pace of network construction.

This expansion wasn't just about density; it was also about geographic reach. Lumos grew its operational footprint from two states to ten across the Midwest and Eastern U.S., planting its flag in new territories and bringing its 100% fiber-optic service to a host of previously underserved communities. This growth aligns with a broader industry trend, where providers invested over $60 billion between 2019 and 2023 to meet surging consumer demand for high-speed internet. While larger national players boast bigger numbers, Lumos's expansion rate is notably robust for a regional provider, demonstrating a clear and aggressive strategy to capture market share.

“Working here at Lumos has been the highlight of my career – a true honor from the very beginning,” Stading said in the company's official announcement. “It has been my privilege to be part of this journey and I’m proud of what this team has accomplished together. I look forward to watching the company continue to grow, innovate, and deliver for customers and communities for years to come.” As Stading prepares to depart, he leaves behind a company far larger and more complex than the one he joined, setting the stage for a new leadership team to build upon his legacy.

A Pivot to Operational Mastery with Internal Veterans

With Stading’s departure, Lumos is turning to seasoned insiders to steer its next chapter. The promotions of David Smith to Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Josh Many to Chief Network Officer (CNO) are telling. Rather than looking externally, the company is elevating leaders with deep institutional knowledge and proven track records in execution, signaling a strategic focus on operational excellence and efficiency.

David Smith, a 13-year veteran of the company, steps into the COO role from his previous position as Chief Network Officer. His career progression within Lumos highlights a deep understanding of the company's core infrastructure. By placing a network expert in charge of overall operations, Lumos appears to be prioritizing the seamless integration of its rapidly expanding network with customer service, logistics, and day-to-day business functions. This move suggests a shift from simply building the network to optimizing its performance and profitability at scale.

Filling the CNO position is Josh Many, who previously served as Senior Vice President of Network Operations. Many is credited with accelerating Lumos's network construction to an impressive rate of approximately 50,000 passings per month. His promotion ensures that the engine of Lumos's growth—its ability to rapidly and safely deploy fiber—remains a central focus. As CNO, he will oversee the entire network lifecycle, from engineering and planning to construction and field operations, ensuring the infrastructure can support sustained growth and the demands of its partnership with T-Mobile. Together, the appointments of Smith and Many represent a strategy of promoting from within to ensure stability and continuity while honing the operational discipline required for long-term success.

Navigating the Crowded Fiber Frontier

Lumos's leadership evolution is not happening in a vacuum. The company is a key combatant in the fierce national battle for broadband dominance. Its expansion into ten states across the Midwest and Eastern U.S. places it in direct competition with a formidable array of players, each vying for subscribers in a market fueled by unprecedented demand and significant government investment.

The competitive landscape includes incumbent telecommunications giants like AT&T and Verizon, which are aggressively upgrading their own legacy networks to fiber. Cable operators such as Comcast and Spectrum are also defending their turf by rolling out their own fiber-to-the-home services. Furthermore, Lumos faces a growing cohort of fellow "overbuilders"—regional fiber providers like Brightspeed and GoNetspeed that, like Lumos, are focused on deploying new, state-of-the-art networks, often in underserved areas.

This intense competition is supercharged by initiatives like the federal BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) program, which is funneling billions of dollars into network construction. While this funding creates massive opportunities, it also attracts more competitors to the same high-potential territories. In this environment, success depends not only on the speed of deployment but also on operational efficiency, customer service, and the ability to form strategic alliances.

The T-Mobile Alliance and the Road Ahead

Central to Lumos's future trajectory is its strategic partnership with T-Mobile. Branded as "part of T-Mobile Fiber Home Internet," this alliance is a cornerstone of both companies' strategies. For T-Mobile, it provides a crucial fiber offering to complement its 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) service, allowing it to compete directly with cable and telco incumbents on all fronts. For Lumos, the partnership provides access to T-Mobile's massive brand recognition and customer base, potentially supercharging subscriber acquisition and justifying its capital-intensive network builds.

The promotions of Smith and Many are critical to the health of this alliance. Their deep operational and network-building expertise is precisely what is needed to ensure Lumos can deliver a reliable, high-performance network that meets the standards of the T-Mobile brand. The ability to continue building at a pace of 50,000 passings per month while ensuring network quality is fundamental to expanding the T-Mobile Fiber footprint.

The most significant question remaining is who will succeed Brian Stading as CEO. The company has assured a "thoughtful and well-planned transition" but has not yet named a successor. This new leader will inherit a company that has successfully completed a massive growth spurt and must now prove it can operate its expanded enterprise efficiently and profitably. They will be tasked with steering the critical T-Mobile partnership, navigating the hyper-competitive market, and defining the next chapter for a company built on the promise of a faster future.

The transition marks a clear evolution for Lumos, from a phase of rapid, land-grab expansion to one focused on operational discipline and sustainable, long-term value creation. The challenge for the new leadership team will be to maintain the aggressive builder's mindset while instilling the rigorous efficiency of a mature operator, all while competing in one of the most dynamic industries in the country.