(Reuters) -British fibre broadband network CityFibre's founder and Chief Executive Officer Greg Mesch is set to step down from the role for personal reasons, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday,
CityFibre Founder Greg Mesch Steps Down; COO Simon Holden Takes Over
LONDON (Reuters) -British fibre broadband network CityFibre's founder Greg Mesch has stepped down as chief executive and has been succeeded by chief operating officer Simon Holden with immediate effect, the company said on Tuesday.
Mesch, who has led the company since it was founded in 2011, has been appointed vice chairman, it said.
Mesch said it was an obvious time to make the change given that he was 65 and had been relentlessly working on CityFibre 24/7 for 15 years, culminating in signing its biggest customer, Sky last year.
"When I closed the Sky contract, it was kind of the end because it took me almost 12 years from the first meeting with Sky to get them over the line," he told Reuters in an interview.
"We also did the financing. So when the financing was done we waited until after the summer holidays and decided to make the announcement."
"It's a very, very good succession plan. Simon has been in this company for six years," he added.
CityFibre, which competes with the likes of BT and Virgin Media O2 in the UK, secured a $3 billion financing in July to fund its network and acquire smaller rivals.
The company, backed by Antin Infrastructure Partners and Goldman Sachs, in February reported its first full year of profit, and aims to expand its wholesale network to more than 8 million premises.
It has built Britain's third-largest broadband network, selling fibre connections via retail providers including Vodafone, TalkTalk and Sky, its newest customer.
Mesch, who plans to move back to his native United States, said he would continue to support CityFibre's long-term direction as vice chairman.
(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru and Paul Sandle in London; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Sonia Cheema and Tomasz Janowski)
