J. Sherman Henderson III, Lightyear Network Solutions
Title: Founder, President and CEO
Years in current position: 16
Years with current company: 16
Years in the indirect channel: 23
Past jobs in the indirect channel: President of Charter Network, a long-distance carrier serving the Midwestern U.S.; founder of U.S. Network; founder, president and CEO of UniDial/Lightyear; board member of Beacon Enterprises.
Annual revenue responsibility: $70 million
Main channel goal: “[The main goal is to] continue to drive our unparalleled 16-year, industry-leading agent program to record heights in terms of number of agents, customers and revenue supported by our market-hardened, back-office support systems together with the expertise and longevity of our support staff with competitively priced and feature-rich product sets.”
Biggest challenge: “[The biggest challenge is] helping our longer-tenured agents to jump onto the wireless opportunities that already exist for them and their existing customer base.”
What is the importance of the indirect channel to your organization and what do you see as the future for your channel operations? “Lightyear was founded in 1993 exclusively using the indirect channel as our sales force and that continues today, which should indicate to everyone how important and vital the indirect channel is to Lightyear now and into the future.”
To what extent do you, personally, show leadership within the companies you have worked for, the business community at large, the communications industry and the channel? “I was re-elected to an unprecedented sixth term as chairman of COMPTEL, the nation’s premiere industry association for telecommunications providers. My leadership in this capacity stretches worldwide and involves continuous interaction with the nation’s and world’s industry leaders and regulatory officials.”
How are you innovative in bringing new ideas to the channel? “Lightyear signed the first-ever wireless wholesale agreement with Verizon Partner Solutions in July 2008 with the primary intent of bringing bundled wireless and wireline solutions to our agents’ customers and their employees. Historically, Lightyear was also the originator of the Agent Equity program that has been copied by other providers. However, Lightyear remains one of the few providers that has actually had a payout to agents for their equity position in the company when it dispersed millions of dollars to numerous Lightyear agents.”
To what extent do you engage in activities to promote or advance the channel? “Again, my role as chair of COMPTEL provides our company unprecedented access to influence industry leaders among both the carriers that we all rely on for our telecom services and the regulators that develop the rules under which we all operate today.”
