APC Towers develops, owns and operates wireless towers, rooftops and infrastructure sites and has successfully done so for over six years. Raleigh-based APC has satellite offices in Ohio, Texas and Utah. It’s not geographically limited, serving 38 states across the country. Although the company builds towers in all regions around the country, APC has focused on sites in regions where weather will not be a major hindrance and with a carrier-centric approach, effectively manages aggressive network rollouts.
APC Towers was formed in 2014. Danny Agresta, President & CEO and Mark Cravens, Chief Development Officer, combined, have over 50 years of experience in telecom. Their business partnership is rooted in longtime friendship, working together in various roles for over 25 years.
Agresta was brought up through the public tower sector. “I was lucky to get started early in my career and was very fortunate to have a few mentors along the way to watch and learn from as I took on more and more responsibility.” While Agresta and Cravens are admittedly inherent entrepreneurs, they did enjoy their years in the corporate setting. “My variety of leadership roles in sales, BTS, M&A, real estate, and DAS prepared me for the challenges and rewards that APC has brought to the table over the past six years,” Agresta says.
APC’s central focus is operational excellence. The end product? A stacked tower. But the process leading up to final outcome is what sets the company apart. “Meeting customer expectations and beating timelines is important to us. What’s more important is handling a challenge that may occur with solution-oriented action items.” Being a ‘flat organization,’ means less layers which equates to quick and flexible decisions and in turn, less lead time.
There are two critical components to a successful project, according
to Agresta. 1) The right personnel and 2) preparation. “We look for
those with extensive telecom experience and we found great success with employees that have a PMP (Project Management Professional) and/or background in supply chain management,” says Agresta.
However, even a tight-knit team in an industry as essential as wireless infrastructure is not immune to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It has brought us all into completely uncharted territory. When we started over six years ago, like any new business, we had to worry about new work and meeting customer expectations. Now, supply chain concerns and the economics associated with the global disaster have been top of mind. The workforce has been disrupted, prompting entire companies to work from home while maintaining daily operations,” says Agresta.
As a result, APC’s primary focus has been on business resilience and flexibility. This angle has allowed them to maintain “close to normal operations. We’ve spent more time evaluating our core business systems. We already had a disaster response plan that ensured APC employees can continue to leverage the tools and data they need to do their jobs remotely.” Agresta says the team had to reassess everything from network access and bandwidth challenges to maintaining customer engagement.
“Mark and I are very proud of the team because they have all been proactive in the development of mitigation plans for potential slowdowns, and project restarts and they continually take the opportunity to compile lessons learned so they can be applied to the business moving forward.”
The APC team continues to operate as efficiently and as safely as possible. “Like all other companies, we have goals to meet and we will continue to moderate our trends and forecasts but in the same breadth, it is important to Mark and I that we be there not only for our customers, but for all of our partners, vendors, and contractors,” Agresta says. He reiterates that it’s not a question of if the work will pick up to a normal pace – it’s simply determining when.
Agresta’s dedication to telecom goes beyond his own company. He also serves as President of the Carolinas Wireless Association, and is Co-Chairman of The Wireless Infrastructure Association’s Infrastructure Developers Forum.
Aside from pivoting internally to support employees and contractors, both Danny and Mark are also concerned about the greater good. APC donated 1,000 N95 respirator masks to WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh, NC and to both The Ronald McDonald House and Children’s Hospitals in Cincinnati, OH. As part of its goal to give back to the community, APC was able to obtain enough PPE masks to help protect doctors, nurses, and employees at each of these healthcare locations.
“Giving back and helping others is part of our culture at APC,” says Agresta. “It was important for us to provide the masks to frontline heath care workers in both of our local communities. Mark lives in Cincinnati and I reside in Raleigh. We, as business leaders and caring corporate citizens, wanted to make sure we show support to our health care workers and recognize the tireless work they have been performing to help safeguard the health and safety of our fellow citizens. We always try to focus on doing the right thing,” said Agresta.
To learn more about APC Towers, or to contact a representative, visit their website at: https://www.apctowers.com/.
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