DUBLIN, IRELAND – Aqua Comms, the operator of Ireland’s first dedicated subsea fibre-optic network interconnecting New York, Dublin and London, has appointed two new members to its executive leadership team. Chris Bayly has been named the company’s new chief commercial officer (CCO) and Brad Kneller has been appointed senior global vice president operations and engineering.
As CCO, Chris will represent the company’s portfolio of subsea cable systems to the global telecommunications market. He has more than 25 years of senior executive experience, including director, network infrastructure sales at Colt Technology Services where he focused on large infrastructure opportunities as well as supporting Colt’s customers in delivering world-class and cost-effective solutions. Prior to joining Colt, Chris was senior vice president, Middle East and Africa at Global Cloud Xchange. As a member of Executive leadership teams and chartered management accountant, he has occupied senior management roles across multiple functions, including sales and marketing, finance and business development in both mature and emerging markets.
Brad, Aqua Comms’ new senior global vice president operations and engineering, was previously head of networks at Global Cloud Xchange, where he led the operation of one of the world’s largest privately-owned submarine cable networks. He was also vice president of european operations at Global Crossing and director of operations at NTL (formerly CableTel). Brad brings with him a wealth of expertise in both terrestrial and subsea networks.
The appointments follow the announcement that that the company has joined the HAVFRUE consortium to own and operate a portion of this new subsea cable system connecting New Jersey, U.S., to Ireland and Denmark with further connectivity options to Norway. Aqua Comms is the appointed system operator and landing party in the U.S., Ireland, and Denmark. Aqua Comms will market and sell capacity services and raw spectrum on it portion of the HAVFRUE cable system under the brand name America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2) as complementary to its existing transatlantic cable, America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1).
In response to the ever-increasing demand for connectivity to Scandinavia, Aqua Comms is also developing North Sea Connect, the first modern, high capacity subsea cable system crossing the North Sea from Newcastle to Denmark. North Sea Connect will be a repeatered cable system that interlinks with Aqua Comms’ CeltixConnect cables via UK terrestrial routes. The new cable will enable direct, un-regenerated, high capacity connectivity between Dublin and Denmark, and serve the demand for data centre interconnectivity.
‘As Aqua Comms continues to develop and invest in new subsea cable networks, including the North Sea Connect and HAVFRUE cable systems, the experience that Chris Bayly and Brad Kneller possess in the global telecom and submarine cable sectors will be an immense benefit to the commercialisation and delivery of our advanced subsea connectivity,’ stated Nigel Bayliff, chief executive officer, Aqua Comms. ‘Aqua Comms is entering a dynamic phase of growth, and the individual track records that Chris and Brad have demonstrated across both subsea and terrestrial systems lends great confidence in their abilities to deliver capacity-based network solutions and exceptional customer experience for carriers, content providers and the global media.’