Fletcher Kittredge

CEO

GWI

Fletcher is the CEO and founder of GWI. Fletcher grew up in Arundel, Maine and went to Colby College, where he majored in English. He graduated in 1984 and in the same year, went to Cambridge, Massachusetts and started working at the research lab, Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN). The following year Fletcher started graduate work at Harvard University in Computer Science. In 1993, the New York Times had a front page article about the Internet and how it was going to be very big. Fletcher took a small inheritance of $48,000, moved to Maine, and started Biddeford Internet Corporation in 1994, a company which still operates today as GWI. A passionate advocate for broadband growth and network neutrality, Fletcher serves on the ConnectMaine advisory board in addition to his role at GWI. He led GWI's efforts to obtain a $25 million Federal grant to deploy 1,110 miles of high capacity fiber optic in rural Maine as part of the Three Ring Binder project, later transitioning those funds to independent Maine Fiber Company in order to foster competition and lower broadband costs for rural Maine. In 2011, Fletcher was recognized by MaineBiz as Business Leader of the Year for his leadership of GWI and bringing funding for Three Ring Binder to Maine.