Fletcher Kittredge, founder and CEO of GWI

In 1994, after moving to Maine from Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fletcher Kittredge founded Maine-based internet service provider GWI. In the last 20 years, GWI has grown to 55 employees and $16 million in annual revenue, and it has been named five times to Inc. magazine’s list of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. Currently, GWI provides service in all 16 Maine counties to both residential and business customers. GWI is a telephone company as well as an ISP and partners with a growing list of Maine municipalities to build and operate municipal fiber networks. In 2009, GWI was a partner in the Three Ring Binder project that created a 1,100-mile fiber optic network, spanning Maine in the form of three connected rings. In 2011, MaineBiz named Fletcher as Maine’s Large Business Leader of the Year. Prior to GWI, Fletcher worked for Massachusetts-based research laboratory Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) for nine years as a network software developer. Fletcher graduated from Colby College with a BA in English and Harvard University with an MS in computer science.