VPLS Expands Executive Roster: Derek Garnier Joins as President & COO

We are excited to announce the expansion of our executive team. Derek Garnier joins VPLS as President and Chief Operating Officer. John Minnix is appointed to the role of Chief Revenue Officer. The pair bring more than 50 years of combined industry experience to VPLS.

“We are excited to welcome Derek Garnier back to the VPLS team and welcome John Minnix into his new role. VPLS provides Internet Infrastructure services to businesses nationwide,” states CEO, Arman Khalili. “As our team continues to grow to accommodate our client’s ever-changing needs, VPLS is expanding its executive roster to achieve goals that will continue to make VPLS the premier choice for our clients.”

Minnix adds, “I am excited for the opportunity to become VPLS’s first Chief Revenue Officer. I look forward to creating meaningful partnerships and value for our clients.”

Derek Garnier is a 30-year industry veteran in digital infrastructure, specializing in corporate strategy, and has successfully built, operated, and sold companies. He was most recently the Co-Founder of Arcadian Infracom, a long-haul fiber optic company operating in the Southwest. Prior to Arcadian, Garnier served as President and COO of Evocative Datacenters, the predecessor to VPLS. Before his tenure with Evocative, Garnier was the CEO of Layer42 Networks, a national network services and colocation provider, which he successfully exited in 2015 through a sale to Wave Broadband. After the acquisition, he continued to serve as Wave’s SVP of Datacenter Services.

I am thrilled to join VPLS and work with some familiar faces once again, I look forward to building on VPLS’s history of securing, connecting, and supporting businesses from the cloud to the edge.Derek Garnier, President and COO, VPLS

Garnier succeeds Minnix, who will focus on revenue growth. Both will work closely to fortify VPLS’s leadership position in key geographies while developing additional market and product opportunities.