22225 - SCTE Broadband - Aug2024

FROM THE INDUSTRY

A rising tide lifts all boatS. It’s win-win. We’re glad we did it. And no looking back, it’s helped us accomplish one of our early goals. The official structure of that is called an ESOP, Employee Stock Ownership Plan. When you’re in Hawaii, what’s a typical day like for you? I wake up at 5am in the morning and start work. At 8am I’ll go for a swim in the ocean. Then breakfast, more calls, or different activities scheduled till 12pm. I’ve been working for seven hours with my little break. I usually have a few hours of flexibility in the afternoon because Europe’s asleep at that point and the Americas are winding down. In the evening, I will work from around 7:30pm to 9pm. Europe and parts of the Americas are waking up by then. A long day, but if you think about it in the way, I am able to break it up, it’s pretty ideal. What are your standout memories over the course of your career? In 2004 we won our first large asset recovery contract, when we had one of the largest carriers in the US agree to use RINCON as their partner for asset recovery. It felt like validation: there is a market for this! We were so relieved: “Great. I guess my daughter will get diapers now.” Mike and I took a lot of personal financial risk to get this off the ground.

of technology migration in the US, and our position as the incumbent managing surplus assets for the top US carriers means we have access to an ongoing supply. We’ve got the supply side covered and Europeans are supplying the demand. Are there compatibility issues between North American products and European? There used to be, but there are fewer issues now. For the part of the network where RINCON specialises, which is the routing/switching and optical transport, there’s a lot of cross-compatibility, but it is something we tackle on a platform-by- platform basis. Tell us a bit about how your business is structured. RINCON is privately owned; we took out our initial seed investors back in 2005. As such we’ve been privately owned for the last 19 years of our 21-year journey. Six years ago, Mike and I sold 49% of the company to the employees. To grow wealth, you need to have assets. Instead of just giving people raises, the best way that you can help people is help them acquire assets. We want to grow the enterprise value of RINCON. In doing so, not only will you have the opportunity to earn bonuses or paydays, but you’ll create some longer-term wealth for you and your family.

companies that provide decommissioning services and there are companies that provide recycling. However, the carriers have more assets to take care and fewer head count to do so. Consequently, over the last decade our customers have been increasingly asking us to take point in coordinating activity across the range of surplus equipment. As a result, we have been increasingly adding this capacity and building this muscle to the point where it defines us. In terms of circular economy thinking, we were the first company in the industry to establish a Sustainability Action Plan in 2018. In doing we published our sustainability goals, and high level of transparency on our progress toward those goals, which took time to gather. Now that document and the system for collecting the data in it is one of the things that are customers lean on in compiling sustainability metrics for their own internal goals. A one-stop shop. Yes, plus our global reach: about 30% of our revenue is international. Currently Latin America is the largest sub-market for us, with Europe a strong second. But as I say, given the cultural and regulatory developments in Europe we think we’ll see a dramatic increase in the demand for green market hardware in the region.

A great opportunity.

Yes, the regulatory and cultural environment in Europe is creating a spike in demand for green market hardware in Europe. Simultaneously, the acceleration

SEPTEMBER 2024 Volume 46 No.3

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