The Waterloo Telecommunications Utility Board of Trustees has named Robert Houlihan as Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Waterloo Fiber, the city’s community-owned fiber internet provider. Houlihan will begin the role on September 28, 2026.
Houlihan brings more than two decades of leadership in broadband and telecommunications, spanning network engineering, operations, and executive management. He joins Waterloo Fiber as the utility enters its next phase of growth, continuing to expand its all-fiber network across Waterloo while delivering faster, more reliable, and more affordable internet service to residents and businesses.
Houlihan’s career bridges both the municipal broadband world and the competitive private sector. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Network Services at a rapidly expanding fiber provider in Arizona and earlier led network engineering and operations across multiple U.S. markets for Ting Internet, a national provider. In those roles he helped launch and scale fiber networks in large, highly competitive metropolitan markets around the country. That experience directly informs the challenge and opportunity ahead for Waterloo Fiber as a community-owned provider competing to win customers.
Earlier in his career, Houlihan spent 13 years at Cedar Falls Utilities — one of the nation’s most recognized municipal broadband providers — where he helped introduce one of the country’s earliest gigabit internet services and oversaw the broadband utility’s operations, engineering, and long-term planning. That combination of deep municipal-broadband roots and hands-on experience competing in major markets makes him a distinctive fit to lead Waterloo Fiber.
For Houlihan, the role is also a homecoming. An Iowa native, University of Northern Iowa graduate, and longtime Cedar Valley resident, he spent many of his most formative professional years just next door in Cedar Falls. He and his family are enthusiastic about returning to the area, bringing back the experience gained in competitive markets across the country to serve the community where his career began.
"We built Waterloo Fiber on a simple promise: the people of Waterloo deserve world-class internet owned by the community it serves. Keeping that promise means competing and winning against well-funded national providers, and Rob has done exactly that. He helped launch one of the country's first gigabit services at Cedar Falls Utilities, then built fiber networks in some of the toughest markets in America. Few leaders carry both of those experiences. The board's confidence in Rob is unanimous and well earned. For our customers, it means a utility that keeps expanding, keeps improving, and never forgets who it works for. We're proud to welcome Rob home to the Cedar Valley and to Waterloo Fiber."
— Andrew Van Fleet, Chair, Waterloo Telecommunications Utility Board of Trustees
“This is very much a homecoming — Iowa is where I'm from, and the Cedar Valley is where my career began. Community-owned broadband means the network answers to the people who use it, not to shareholders somewhere else, and that's exactly the kind of mission I want to spend this next chapter on. I'm grateful for the board's trust, and I'm looking forward to working with the strong team at Waterloo Fiber. Together, we're building a network the Waterloo community will own and benefit from for decades to come.”
— Robert Houlihan, CEO & General Manager, Waterloo Fiber
Waterloo Fiber was established as a community-owned internet service provider to strengthen local economic development, improve quality of life, and ensure that residents, businesses, and institutions have access to world-class broadband infrastructure. The utility operates a state-of-the-art fiber network and is currently expanding service across the city.For more information about Waterloo Fiber, visit www.waterloofiber.com
Contact Information:
Waterloo FiberOpens in new window
402 E 4th Street, Waterloo, IA 50703
Phone: (319) 291-0175
