Frederic Salerno, Senior Advisor, joined New Mountain in 2006. Mr. Salerno retired as Verizon’s Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer in September 2002 after more than 37 years in the telecommunications industry. Prior to the Bell Atlantic/GTE merger which created Verizon, Mr. Salerno was Senior Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of Bell Atlantic. As a member of the Office of the Chairman, he was responsible for the company’s strategic planning efforts, business development and finance as well as oversight of the company’s portfolio of international wireline investments.
During his career, Mr. Salerno served as the lead negotiator in three significant mergers: the 1997 merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX, Bell Atlantic’s merger with GTE and the combination of the U.S. wireless assets of Bell Atlantic and Vodafone into the world’s largest wireless provider, Verizon Wireless. A native New Yorker, Mr. Salerno joined New York Telephone in 1965. In 1983, Mr. Salerno became Vice President and directed the divestiture of the company from the Bell System, and in 1987 he was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of the company. An active participant in support of community and educational issues, Mr. Salerno serves as trustee of the Inner City Scholarship Fund. In 1990 Mr. Salerno was appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York, a position he held until 1996.
Mr. Salerno (former Chairman of the Board of Akamai Technologies, Inc.) currently serves as a Senior Advisor to New Mountain Capital, Lead Independent Director of Associated Capital and Lead Director for InterContinental Exchange. He also serves on the board of Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corporation. Having completed his tenure as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cleveland Clinic Martin Memorial Health Systems in April 2021, Mr. Salerno will continue to serve as a member of the board. He is also a past director of CBS, Viacom, Inc., Stroz Friedberg, Keyspan, Orange & Rockland Utilities, Orion Power Holdings, Avnet, Inc., Heidrick & Struggles, Dun & Bradstreet, Consolidated Edison, Popular Inc., The Hartford and National Fuel Gas.