Seasoned Investors and Directors Strengthen Pacific Fibre
A group of seasoned investors have thrown their weight behind trans-pacific data cable company Pacific Fibre. They join
a strong founding team including Sam Morgan, Sir Stephen Tindall and Rod Drury.
Mark Rushworth, former ihug CEO and Vodafone marketing director has been appointed full-time CEO and former Fairfax
chief executive officer David Kirk has joined the Board.
“My priority as chief executive is meeting with potential customers,” said Mr Rushworth. “Over the past three months I
have met with Asian, Australasian and North American companies and we’ve been very encouraged by the response we’ve been
getting.”
Alongside further investment by Morgan, Tindall and Drury, a new group of seasoned investors have also taken stakes,
including David Kirk, economist and investment adviser Gareth Morgan, Seaworks chairman Bill Day and MYOB founder Craig
Winkler.
“This project is important for New Zealand, commercially viable and we’re excited to be able to broaden our shareholder
base with people who can make this happen,” said founding director Rod Drury.
Mark Rushworth and other Pacific Fibre executives have attended submarine cabling conferences in Japan and United States
over recent months. They have met with vendors, customers and industry experts; and received strong support for the
project and the need for increased competition and route diversity.
Pacific Fibre will connect Australia, New Zealand and the USA with a fibre cable delivering 5.12 Terabits/sec of
capacity in 2013. The Pacific Fibre cable will be five times the total current capacity of the existing data cable to
the United States operated by Southern Cross.
ENDS