Vertical Bridge REIT, LLC, today announced the appointment of Ronald G. Bizick, II as President and Chief Operating Officer. Bizick brings 33 years of telecommunications industry experience to Vertical Bridge. He previously co-founded and served as CEO of Tarpon Towers, LLC which develops, acquires, and manages over 2,250 wireless communication sites throughout the United States. Tarpon has named its current President and Co-Founder, William Freeman as CEO and Brett Buggeln as President and COO.
Before forming Tarpon, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Global Signal, Inc., a former NYSE-listed company. During his tenure at Global Signal, the company completed a successful IPO, acquired nearly $2 billion in tower assets, raised over $2.2 billion in mortgage-backed securitizations, and tripled its portfolio from 3,500 to over 11,000 owned and managed communication sites. Prior to Global Signal, Mr. Bizick was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of SBA Communications, a NASDAQ company, helping grow it from a start-up to a nationwide public company.
“It’s a bittersweet moment for me to leave the company that I co-founded in 2008. With the help of all my partners and our employees, we built a very successful customer-centric, results-driven business,” Bizick said. “I have no doubt Tarpon will continue to thrive and deliver for its customers under Bill and Brett’s leadership.” Looking forward, Biziick said, “The Vertical Bridge team is world class. Joining a company like Vertical Bridge, with its customer-centric and long-term view of the industry, is a perfect fit,” said Mr. Bizick. “I look forward to helping Alex and the rest of the team continue to be the industry-leading and largest private wireless infrastructure provider in the U.S.”
In this new role, Bizick will work closely with Alex Gellman, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, and the other members of the Vertical Bridge senior leadership team, as the company continues to support its customers and their infrastructure buildout of 5G and emerging technologies.
“Ron is a superb addition to our team of industry veterans,” said Gellman. “His prior accomplishments in C level positions in our industry – both in entrepreneurial and large public corporations – make him the ideal candidate for filling this newly created role at Vertical Bridge. As important, he fits with our outstanding team of motivated and hardworking professionals. I look forward to working closely with Ron as we continue our aggressive growth in 2022 and beyond.”
As President and Chief Operating Officer, Bizick will serve alongside Gellman and the other co-founders: Marc Ganzi, Co-founder and Executive Chairman; Bernard Borghei, Co-founder and Executive Vice President of Operations; and Michael Belski, Co-founder and Executive Vice President of Leasing and Marketing. Other senior executive team members include Michael Romaniw, Chief Financial Officer; Dale Carey, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Convergence; Johnny Crawford, Executive Vice President of Development; Bob Paige, Executive Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions and Corporate Development; Bob Glosson, Executive Vice President of Real Estate and Technology; and Daniel Marinberg, Senior Vice President and General Counsel.
“It’s been fourteen years since Ron and I founded Tarpon and Ron has been a great partner throughout that timeframe and an even better friend,” commented Bill Freeman. “I, as well as all of our partners at Tarpon, wish Ron the very best in his new endeavors and are confident that he will be successful,” added Freeman. “Tarpon is well funded with over $100 million of capital to invest. We will continue to serve our wireless customers with build to suit towers and our existing portfolio of high-quality sites.”
