About Cheryl Beranek
Cheryl Beranek, CEO of Clearfield, spoke at the Fiber Connect 2024 conference about the company's efforts to accelerate fiber broadband deployment. She announced the introduction of "built," a mobile app that uses 3D images to provide field education for technicians. Beranek also discussed new products aimed at reducing operational expenses by lowering the amount of labor and skill required for network construction, citing the "deploy re tap box" as an example of a "craft friendly" and "craft smart" solution. She described the industry's momentum, noting that the conference expected a record 5,000 attendees.
In a 2023 interview, Beranek discussed Clearfield's growth from a startup with a stock price of $0.86 to a company with a market cap of $1.4 billion. She stated that the company's product line allows service providers to align capital expenditures with subscriber take rates, emphasizing modularity and scalability. Beranek noted that Clearfield experienced a 70% compounded annual growth rate during the COVID-19 pandemic, finishing fiscal year 2022 with a 91% growth rate and an 18.5% net income. She described Starlink as a "really good product" for niche solutions but said it is not suitable for dense or high-user environments. Beranek also stated that Clearfield is well-positioned to benefit from government funding programs like BEAD, which she said allocates about half of its $100 billion toward capital expenditures.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Cheryl Beranek's recent appearances.
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Transcript (1 segments)
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Cheryl Beranek0:00
Good morning. I am so excited to be part of a world in which fiber is going to be able to enable the lifestyle that better broadband provides. I'm Cheryl Beranek and I am CEO of Clearfield. At Clearfield, we're here at the beginning of the Fiber Connect show. We have 30 minutes until things start and it is a construction buzz. We are waiting for 5,000 people to join us this year, which is an amazing record and just testimony to what we all believe the future is and we want to be part of it. As fiber specialists, we're looking forward as part of the Clearfield world to help that be possible by some really innovative tools. We're introducing something called Built, and Built is an app on your phone that can help you with 3D images to provide education in the field where you need it on your phone. Come by the booth or go to any app store and download Built and search for Clearfield and you can see for yourself. Another thing we think is absolutely crucial is being able to provide equipment that isn't necessarily a capex issue, but how do we reduce the opex of building these networks? Our new product introductions are about reducing the amount of labor as well as the amount of skill in that labor to move forward, helping technicians move forward at their pace. You can see that as part of something we call our Deploy Rap Tap Box, part of being craft friendly and craft smart. Overall, I invite you to be part of this industry and to join me and to join Clearfield in making our world a better place.
