Aqua Comms CEO Jim Fagan has jumped ship and taken the top job at Exa Infrastructure.
The two companies announced today that Fagan was leaving Aqua Comms, effective immediately, and heading across to Exa Infrastructure, where he will take over the CEO role in August.
In his stead, subsea cable firm Aqua Comms has appointed chief network officer Andy Hudson as acting CEO, while chairman Alan Harper will provide commercial and strategic assistance throughout the remainder of 2024.
Harper said of the change: "Aqua Comms would like to thank Jim Fagan for the excellent work he has done in creating a healthy and growing business since joining in 2023, we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors. Aqua Comms continues to be in a strong position in the market and are optimistic about the future of the business.”
Exa Infrastructure has been receiving CEO oversight from the executive chair of its board of directors, Nick Read, since November 2023 following Martijn Blanken's exit. Read will continue to do so until Fagan officially joins, and will then support Fagan as executive chair.
Jim Fagan has been CEO of D9-owned Aqua Comms since May 2023, where he replaced Nigel Bayliff. Prior to that, he worked at Global Cloud Exchange as chief revenue and strategy officer as part of a team that lifted the business out of bankruptcy before selling it on to 3i, a UK-based private equity and venture capital company. He has also previously held roles at Telstra, Pacnet, and Rackspace.
Nick Read said of Exa's new appointment: "This announcement marks the next phase in Exa’s growth story, where we will see Exa continue to focus on strategic investments to support our customer growth driven by cloud, content, and AI. Jim brings a deep sector knowledge and a comprehensive understanding of our customers coupled with the ability to optimize our operations to ensure we excel in industry-leading service delivery.”
Exa Infrastructure has a network spanning over 125,000km across 34 countries, and operates with more than 500 optical PoPs, with extending routes throughout Europe and North America, crossing the Atlantic via three wholly owned and operated subsea cables.
The company was formed out of European, subsea, and North American network infrastructure and data center assets previously owned by GTT and snapped up by I Squared Capital in September 2021.
D9, an investment firm founded by Triple Point, acquired Aqua Comms in May 2021. D9 recently announced it was winding down and would be selling its assets and invstments.
