5/7/2019
Dan Caruso, the chairman and CEO of Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., will deliver the keynote address at Engineering Graduation Convocation on Saturday. Dan holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and earned his MBA from the University of Chicago.
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Zayo is a global provider of communications infrastructure that provides mission-critical bandwidth to the world’s most impactful companies, fueling the innovations that are transforming our society. As founder of the business in 2007, Dan has led the company from startup to IPO to a company with a multi-billion dollar equity value.
In addition to Zayo, Dan has been part of two other fiber startups that have eclipsed valuations of $10 billion. Dan first joined MFS Communications, a pioneering company competing with the Bell system during the initial commercialization of the Internet. He then became a founding executive at Level 3 Communications and served in a variety of strategic and technical leadership roles during his tenure, including oversight of engineering, construction, operations, and marketing.
He began his career at Illinois Bell/Ameritech and prior to launching Zayo, Dan was the President and CEO of ICG Communications, where he led the take-private buyout in 2004. In 2006, ICG was sold, which yielded a return of approximately 25X the $8.7M investment.
Dan is an investor in several high impact Colorado companies including Galvanize and Secure Set. Dan helped launch Envysion, a software, video surveillance, and analytics provider, where he served as the company’s chairman from 2006 to 2013. Previously, Dan invested in the Colorado companies Datavail and New Global Telecom as well as the European telecom providers euNetworks and GTS Central Europe.
Dan is an avid supporter of Colorado’s and Chicago’s entrepreneurial community and is particularly interested in the intersection between for-profit impact investing inclusion and entrepreneurship. Dan serves on the board of University of Chicago’s Polsky Center, Chancellor’s Strategic Advisory Council at CU Boulder and the University of Denver’s Board of Trustees.
He was the original steering committee chairman for the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network and supported Startup Colorado from its inception. Dan supports Endeavor Global, CU’s New Venture Challenge, Greenhouse Scholars and the University of Chicago’s New Venture Challenge. In 2015, Dan and his wife Cindy established the Caruso Family Foundation to inspire and support entrepreneurship, advance knowledge and empower healthier lives.
Dan has received the Chicago Booth Distinguished Alumni Award for Entrepreneurship (2016), Bob Newman Lifetime Achievement Award (2013), Colorado Governor’s Corporate Citizenship Medal for his leadership at Zayo (2015), Boulder Chamber of Commerce Industry Leadership Award (2015), Gold Stevie Winner for Executive of the Year in the Telecommunications (2015), Boulder Chamber of Commerce Esprit Award (2010), and the Communications Technology Professionals Communications Executive of the Year (2009). Dan was also an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 regional winner and 2011 national finalist.