ConnectM Forms Strategic Advisory Board to Drive AI Energy Infrastructure Growth; Appoints Ashland Director Ashish Kulkarni, Former Fortress and Shumway Capital Executive Neil Bhatia, and Las Olas Capital CEO Jim McCabe
Key Highlights
- ➤ConnectM (CNTM) forms Strategic Advisory Board focused on AI energy infrastructure growth
- ➤Ashish Kulkarni, Neil Bhatia and Jim McCabe appointed as strategic advisors
- ➤Board targets data-center power, cooling, storage and intelligent energy-management customers
- ➤Advisors will pursue partnerships, institutional investors, profitability improvements and capital allocation
- ➤IEA projects data-center electricity consumption more than doubling to 945 TWh by 2030
Expert Statements
Bhaskar Panigrahi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ConnectM
“Ashish, Neil and Jim each bring something ConnectM needs at this stage. Ashish has run technology and innovation for large industrial companies and sits on a public company board. Neil spent his career inside the kinds of institutions we want as long-term shareholders. Jim invests in AI data center infrastructure and sits on the advisory board of a Nasdaq-listed company building it. Demand for power at the edge of the grid is being driven by AI data centers, and we intend to be one of the companies that supplies it. We formed this board to turn that opportunity into customers, partners and capital, and we expect to be measured on those outcomes.”
Bhaskar Panigrahi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ConnectM
“Each member has agreed to work on specific objectives tied to the four priorities above, and we will report on progress as it is made.”
Jim McCabe, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Las Olas Capital
“I have spent the last several years investing in the build-out of AI computing capacity, and have seen firsthand that power is the biggest constraint right now. ConnectM already distributes the storage, controls and software that address that constraint at the edge of the power grid. I believe the value of existing infrastructure with secured electricity will only become more valuable and I look forward to helping the Company turn that position into contracts and into a shareholder base that reflects it.”
MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Oct. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ConnectM Technology Solutions, Inc. (OTCQX: CNTM) (“ConnectM” or the “Company”), a U.S.-based technology company that develops, sells and operates energy infrastructure powering the physical layer of the AI economy, today announced the formation of a Strategic Advisory Board and the appointment of three members: Ashish Kulkarni, a director of Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) and former Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of GAF; Neil Bhatia, a former senior executive of Fortress Investment Group, Shumway Capital Partners and Marcato Capital Management; and Jim McCabe, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Las Olas Capital.
The advisors will work directly with ConnectM’s management on the Company’s top priority: building an AI energy infrastructure business that supplies power, cooling, storage and intelligent energy management to data centers and the grid edge, and converting that growth into a more profitable company with a broader base of long-term institutional shareholders.
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