GCN's Palermo Named Upstack President Following Acquisition

A popular figure in the telco and data center agent channel has joined Upstack.

Global Communication Networks (GCN) founder and CEO Chris Palermo accepted an acquisition offer from the New York-based firm. As a result, Palermo has joined Upstack as an equity stakeholder and its new president. Palermo will collaborate with Upstack CEO Christopher Trapp to expand the company’s platform. He’ll also develop Upstack’s partner investment strategy.

Upstack’s Chris Palermo

Trapp called Palermo “one of the pioneers of our industry.”

“Tapping into his expertise and network will help us accelerate the building of Upstack’s most comprehensive product and service offering yet,” Trapp said. “I am honored that he selected Upstack as his go-to-market partner and can’t wait to both work with and learn from him.”

Palermo founded GCN in 1997 after stints at Allnet, AT&T and C&W. Furthermore, the brokerage expanded to land on the Inc. 5000 and secure multiple Fortune 500 customers.

Multiple firms approached Palermo about an acquisition, but he turned them down. Palermo said GCN would have functioned as a a “cog in the wheel.”

He said GCN can now optimize the resources and expertise in Upstack to “create optimal solutions.”

Upstack’s Christopher Trapp

“Selecting Upstack as our growth partner means that the entire GCN team would transition under the Upstack umbrella and would become a material component of its account management, delivery and customer success organization,” said Palermo.

Upstack has been putting its $50 million Berkshire private equity investment to good use, having acquired at least 15 channel partners.

Check out a story from our archives about Palermo’s involvement with Telecom for Change.