Equity Player Forges J5 Out of Cortel, TowerCom Technologies

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Ridgemont Equity Partners, a Dallas-based middle market buyout and growth equity player, has created J5 Infrastructure Partners, a new telecommunications infrastructure service company by combining Cortel Inc and TowerCom Technologies LLC. The latter two wireless deployment operations were among industry leaders in the western United States. The newly formed company will be headquartered in Orange County, CA. and led by industry veteran, Jerry Elliott, as CEO.

Operating as J5, the new entity expects to perform site acquisition, leasing, permitting, zoning, structural engineering, utility coordination and equipment installation services directly to all four of the top wireless carriers in the U.S. as well as tower and other infrastructure owners and state and local governments, the company said. Its growth strategy includes “the incorporation of additional services to form a broader offering to both wireless and wireline network operators and the densification of its presence in the western region of the U.S. Through both organic growth and selective acquisition, the Company will increase its scope, scale and local knowledge expertise to better serve its customers.”  

Elliott, who has had extensive operational expertise through past leadership roles at Leap/Cricket Wireless, Global Signal and Frontier Communications, said he’s “very pleased to be partnering with Ridgemont, SR Capital and existing management to form J5. There is a tremendous opportunity for growth in telecom infrastructure services and we intend to leverage the deep subject matter knowledge of the great teams at Cortel and TowerCom to identify new complementary services and markets.” Beginning in 2009, Elliott also served in a number of executive roles at the Weather Channel, including Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Financial Officer.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.