Everyone Connected
The Aqua Comms team consists of some of the industry’s most experienced executives, all of whom are focused on developing and delivering state-of-the art subsea network solutions
Our Team
At Aqua Comms, we are always striving to become better and improve our performance. We are a very small firm in terms of staff, yet we manage a global asset that stretches 6,000 kilometres across the Atlantic. Meeting our Service SLA is paramount to our success. Delivering against our promise means we continually review our people, skills, competencies, processes, security and operational systems, as well as the performance of the network and landing stations. We are always focusing on our investment of new projects to ensure optimum customer experience, improved availability and system augmentation, driving cohesive and best-in-class operations. We are completely aligned in what we do. We build the cable, we operationalize it, put it into our model, sell it, and operate it. And we do that very efficiently. With a small team, highly efficient operating model and a focused attention on our business, we can take that model around the world where we invest and produce a valuable infrastructure for countries, continents and companies to allow them to build the underlying layer of the internet.
Executive Team
Nigel Bayliff
Chief Executive Officer
Nigel Bayliff,
Chief Executive Officer
Nigel joined Aqua Comms in October 2016, having previously provided consultancy services to global telecoms companies through SIN Medida Limited, a business he established in 2008 to capitalise on his experience of more than 25 years of senior technical, operational and executive roles in the global telecommunications industry. Nigel also served as Vice-Chairman of the joint United Nations agencies task force that looked at providing disaster relief and climate information from the global web of undersea cables. Between 2009 and 2013, he served as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of Huawei Marine Networks (HMN). Leading HMN from start-up through many complex system sales, the delivery of the first new subsea technology in more than a decade, and the development of a second phase innovative titanium repeater, he drove the organisation to break-even in year four and established its position in the marketplace. From 2002 to 2008, Nigel was a member of the executive team of FLAG Telecom, where he served as an Officer and Deputy Chairman for several group companies and was responsible for construction and operation of the FLAG Global Network, encompassing approximately 65,000 km of submarine cable systems connecting 40 countries and providing carrier-grade connectivity services. Prior to this, he held senior roles at NTL (now Virgin Media) and Cable & Wireless/Mercury Communications (now Vodafone). Nigel is a Chartered Engineer and holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Telecommunications Engineering from Essex University. He studied International Development at INSEAD, Paris, and Strategic Management at Ashridge, UK. In 2006, Nigel was elected as a Fellow of the UK Institute of Engineering Technology.
Andy Hudson
Chief Network Officer
Andy Hudson,
Chief Network Officer
Andy is Chief Network Officer at Aqua Comms. He was appointed to this position in June 2017 and since joining has made a massive impact, leading all aspects of Aqua Comms’ global operations and engineering. Most recently, Andy held the position of COO at Bermuda Telephone Company (BTC) where he held operational responsibility for network planning, field operations, NMC, SOC, and IT, along with customer care, Sales and Marketing. Andy has more than three decades of experience in the national and international arena, optimising mobile, fixed and subsea operations. Prior to his role at BTC, he was Managing Director of Network Rail Telecom. Under Andy’s leadership he developed services for both critical national infrastructure and the commercialisation of the network, developing a single, unified telecoms organisation focused on improving service availability and customer satisfaction, among other activities. Andy has held other positions, such as Global Vice President, Field Operations, and Infrastructure Engineering at Interoute Communications, as well as Senior Operational responsibilities at BTC where he oversaw operations of the incumbent driving transformation and digitisation of the network. He also spent considerable time as a senior leader at Ebone/GTS and BT. A telecommunications industry veteran, throughout his career he has sustained full operational and managerial responsibility.
Kevin Foley
Chief Financial Officer
Kevin Foley,
Chief Financial Officer
Kevin is Chief Financial Officer at Aqua Comms and is responsible for managing all financial operations as well as tax and treasury. Kevin joined the company in April 2017, having previously acted as CFO for Cable & Wireless Barbados (trading as Flow Barbados), a Liberty Global Company. He has worked extensively in the telecommunications industry and his wealth of experience extends to Fixed Voice, Carrier/Interconnect, Mobile, Internet and Television. Since 2014, he has held various roles at Cable & Wireless, including CFO, Barbados, CFO Cayman Islands, and Finance Director, Carrier Services. Kevin also served as a Board Member for CWC Insurance Ltd. Between 2009 and 2013, he was based in Luxembourg at the inception of Vodafone’s centralised roaming hub, with responsibility for finance operations, and commercial finance. This was following his role at Digicel Group Jamaica as Financial Reporting Manager. Kevin began his career at Deloitte on the graduate recruitment programme. He is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland (ICAI) and holds a B.Comm. from University College Dublin (UCD), and an M.Acc. from the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business. He also holds a diploma in Corporate Finance and is a certified PRINCE 2 project manager. Kevin has extensive experience in all aspects financial planning, systems and processes.
Chris Bayly
Chief Commercial Officer
Chris Bayly,
Chief Commercial Officer
Chris is Chief Commercial Officer at Aqua Comms. Chris has more than 25 years’ experience in the Telecoms sector. Previously, he was Director, Global Wholesale Solutions at Colt where he focused on large infrastructure opportunities as well as supporting Colt’s customers in delivering cost-effective, world class solutions. Prior to joining Colt, Chris worked predominantly in the submarine cable business as well as with service providers, network and component manufacturers and most recently with a major global terrestrial network operator. His experience covers both working internationally including running the Middle East and Africa business for Global Cloud Xchange (formerly FLAG Telecom and Reliance Globalcom) and successfully working in senior management roles across multiple functions including Sales, Marketing, Pricing, Finance and Business Development. As an experienced member of executive leadership teams and as a Chartered Management Accountant, Chris has successfully delivered on complex and varied business plans in both mature and emerging markets.
Sales Team
Maggie Parry
VP Channel Partner Sales
Maggie Parry,
VP Channel Partner Sales
Maggie is Vice President of Sales, Carrier and Wholesale, responsible for driving revenue growth through this vertical. Maggie joined Aqua Comms in 2015 and has more than three decades of telecommunications experience, including fifteen years in the submarine cable arena. She has worked for companies including ITT WorldCom, Telstra UK, MFS, Level 3 Communications, and Apollo Submarine Cable System Ltd. Prior to her role at Aqua Comms, Maggie spent eight years as a Sales Director at Hibernia Atlantic. She has a B.A. in International Relations and Affairs from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is based in Bromley, UK.
Mike Sauer
VP Americas
Michael Sauer,
VP Americas
Michael is Vice President Americas Partner and Federal at Aqua Comms, having initially joined as a Senior Advisor. Based in the U.S., he has more than 35 years of international telecommunications experience and is one of the industry’s leading experts in international product and service contract negotiations. Before joining Aqua Comms, Michael was employed by Reliance Globalcom where he served as President Americas and was responsible for all Reliance business in North and South America. Prior to Reliance, he was Senior Vice President of International Relations and Carrier Services at MCI. During his time at MCI, Michael was responsible for directing the company’s global activities, worldwide correspondent services and business development, including MCI’s relationship with over 225 international telecommunication companies. He began his telecommunications career at ITT in 1981. Michael graduated from Rutgers University in 1978 with a B.A. in Economics.
Nick Barton
VP Direct Sales, EMEA & Asia
Nick Barton,
VP Direct Sales, EMEA & Asia
Nick is the VP Direct Sales covering the EMEA and Asia regions. Nick has more than 20 years of Sales and Management experience with deep knowledge of global carrier, content and cloud players and the fast-moving technological and commercial trends. With strong understanding of high capacity managed optical services including spectrum, terrestrial fibre and duct transactions, and subsea cables and future investments, Nick has extensive experience in leading teams through complex commercial and technical transactions. Nick has previously worked at Colt, Verizon, Level 3 and MCI WorldCom in the UK, as well as 6 years as Managing Director at Sundial Telecom in South Africa.
Ruud Moelans
Senior Advisor
Ruud Moelans,
Senior Advisor
Ruud is a Senior Advisor at Aqua Comms. Ruud brings more than 25 years of sales and sales support experience in the ICT sector. He began his career at Philips Communications. From Philips, Ruud moved to FLAG Telecom (formerly Reliance Globalcom, Global Cloud Xchange (GCX)). His last role at GCX was Vice President Europe, Carrier Services, where he headed the European Wholesale Sales division. While Belgium is his home base, Ruud has worked internationally throughout his career. In 2016, he joined the Aqua Comms management team where he is now primarily focusing on the Global Sales and Marketing teams. Ruud holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Thomas More University College.
Andrea Forder
Marketing Consultant
Andrea Forder,
Marketing Consultant
Andrea has 20 years of experience as a marketing, communications and operations consultant. Andrea has helped companies across a diverse range of industries to achieve growth, including submarine cable technology, managed services, data centre and colocation, biotechnology and digital advertising. Throughout her career, she has focused on brand-building, communications and organisational structure and process to enable scalability and improved customer experience. She has previously worked at Deep Blue Cable, Sentrum Colo and Navisite. Andrea is a graduate of the University of Exeter.
Network Team
Charles Cumming
Global VP of Operations
Charles Cumming,
Global VP of Operations
Charles has thirty years of Telecommunications Networks Operations experience, nineteen of which were spent in a combination of Senior Engineering and Operations Managerial roles. He has been responsible for the design, delivery and operations on a number of key capital programmes for companies such as Cable & Wireless, Global Crossing, Meteor Mobile Communications and Eir. These programmes involved Charles working on and leading the design, operation and management of SubSea, terrestrial and mobile networks as well as managerial responsibility for national networks operations centres and group IT. Charles’ most recent role involved the Operational Management of Eir’s Network Operations Centre in Co. Dublin, where he headed a number of Engineering Support teams responsible for the 24/7 Network Operations Support, Incident Management and Maintenance of Eir’s Transmission, Voice Switching and Managed Data services.Prior to his most recent role, Charles was responsible for the development, delivery, implementation and functional operation of ITIL-based processes and procedures for various support functions covering the areas of Major Incident Management, Service Introduction and Operational Readiness for Ireland’s largest national carrier.In addition, Charles has held roles where he was responsible for Fibre Network Design, SDH Design and Delivery as well as Transmission/IP Operations Support for Meteor Mobile Communications. In this role, Charles was part of a rapid growth phase of a new entrant in the Irish Mobile Market. Prior to his role in Meteor, Charles was responsible for Commissioning, Acceptance and Operations hand-over of SubSea Cable Systems in North America, South America and Asia for Global Crossing.
Denis Gallagher
Head of Network Engineering
Denis Gallagher,
Head of Network Engineering
Denis is Provisioning Engineer at Aqua Comms. He began his career as a Telecommunications Technician in 1988 in the Royal Air Force, where he spent eleven years. Prior to joining Aqua Comms in 2016, Denis worked at Global Crossing in Bude Cable station where he worked on AC1 and AC2 cable systems in Cornwall. He also worked for Cable and Wireless in London and Subsea Networks. Denis has a decade and a half years’ experience working in cable stations.
Adrian Clayton
Head of Network Operations
Adrian Clayton,
Head of Network Operations
Adrian joined the Aqua Comms team in September 2018 as the head of Network Operations. Adrian’s telecommunications career kicked off in 1987 where he served twelve years in the Royal Air Force installing and maintaining communications equipment. Following the RAF he worked with Marconi Communications where he installed and maintained City SDH networks and associated management systems for high profile customers. In 2000 Adrian relocated to Ireland with Alcatel to assist Global Crossing with the installation of DWDM equipment along with the implementation and running of two Submarine Cable Stations, several amplifier and PoP sites. From 2002- 2018 Adrian worked at Global Crossing/ Level3/Century Link, where he spent sixteen years and was responsible for adding to the network, PoP, Metro and Customer sites.
John McGauran
Senior Infrastructure Manager
John McGauran,
Senior Infrastructure Manager
John joined Aqua Comms with over 16 years telco management experience. He has had many senior roles in delivering major national telco infrastructure spanning across project deployment/service assurance/project management office with roles such as programme manager, Head of PMO, Head of Rollout, Head of core field Engineering and deputy Managing Director. John was at the forefront in the creation of Mosaic which was the first consolidation company of its kind in Ireland (Meteor Mobiles communications, O2 Telefonica and Hutch 3) which consolidated site infrastructure of multiple Mobile telecom companies and thus reducing capex investment and reducing opex spend. John has led numerous large scale infrastructure deployment projects spanning across engineering, delivery and budget management. John’s last role was the creation of a Core Field & engineering department, where he right-sized and consolidated multiple engineering teams via upskilling and cross skilling and ensured an effective and efficient delivery model achieving all set goals. Prior to Telco projects, John worked in the Semiconductor industry on large scale cleanroom Fab infrastructure construction.
Jol Paling
Engineering Advisor
Jol Paling,
Engineering Advisor
Jol is an Engineering Advisor at Aqua Comms where he leads the Subsea Networks Team, supporting the network build and provisioning activities. Jol has worked in the subsea industry since 1990, holding key roles in management, engineering and network development. He has worked on more than 15 new submarine cable build projects and managed numerous subsea and optical network upgrades. Jol has also worked for both subsea system manufacturers and system purchasers at a project development, contract and engineering level, and gained his experience at BT, STC Submarine Systems, Alcatel Submarine Networks, Global Crossing, Level 3 and Subsea Networks Ltd. Jol has a degree in Electronic Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Telecommunications from the University of Essex, carrying out his master’s project in Toulouse with CNET.
Bjoern Haacke
Operations Advisor
Bjoern Haacke,
Head of Operations
Bjoern is Head of Operations at Aqua Comms. Bjoern has developed his career in several senior executive positions for various multinational MNOs and ICT players. Previously, he was responsible for the development and expansion of international operations, pre-sales and service capabilities delivering high speed, high performance and resilient services, supporting multiple products and customer solutions globally. Bjoern has been a major force in the sector by taking the lead in new, industry-wide international wholesale carrier benchmarking. He has broad national and international experience in the telecommunications industry. In his career with Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and T-Systems, Bjoern served in various executive positions in technology, sales and service areas. He is a graduate of the University of Bremen and holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering. Bjoern is based in Oxford, UK.
Legal & Finance
Sandra Delany
General Counsel
Sandra Delany,
General Counsel
Sandra is General Counsel at Aqua Comms and brings experience working with both indigenous and multinational companies on global technology, engineering and telecommunications projects. Sandra has held previous international roles as Group Legal Director at global engineering solutions company, Actavo Group, and at BAE Systems as Head of Legal – Applied Intelligence NetReveal. Sandra is a qualified solicitor and has an LL.B from Trinity College Dublin, and an LL.M (Computers and Law) from Queens University Belfast.
Mark Kelly,
Senior Finance Manager
Mark Kelly,
Senior Finance Manager
Mark is a Senior Finance Manager at Aqua Comms responsible for all Financial Planning and Analysis. Mark joined the company in May 2019 and brings a wealth of Finance Experience to Aqua Comms which he utilises to successfully support our growing business. Prior to joining Aqua Comms he was a Senior Finance Manager at the Irish Stock Exchange for 5 years, where he was responsible for leading the Finance Team successfully through a number of strategic projects, including the sale of the Exchange to Euronext in 2018. Prior to this Mark was based in Sydney Australia where he led and developed local Finance Teams within Top Tier Global Companies such as GE, JP Morgan and BNP Paribas. Mark began his Finance career in Dublin within the Insurance Industry, working for Irish Life on a trainee accountant programme. Mark is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Accountants (ACCA) and holds a BA degree from UCD Dublin.
Fiona Lee,
Financial Controller
Fiona Lee,
Financial Controller
Fiona is Financial Controller at Aqua Comms, joining the team in April 2017 and bringing thirteen years of accounting experience within the mobile technology and fintech space. Fiona was one of the founding employees of Afilias Technologies (formerly dotMobi) and helped bring the company from start-up stage to a massively successful company. It was here that she developed from her role as finance assistant to finance manager whilst simultaneously studying to become a chartered accountant with the ACCA.
Pepa Koleva,
Financial Assistant
Pepa Koleva,
Financial Assistant
Pepa joined as the Finance Assistant in April 2019, bringing with her one year of accounts payable experience within leading Irish property management company. Pepa has strong administration skills which were built up over her seven years of experience as a receptionist and duty manager in the hospitality industry. Pepa holds an Honours Bachelor Degree in Accounting and Finance from Dublin Institute of Technology, where also she decided to continue her education as undertaking a Masters in Applied Accounting. In 2020 Pepa expects to successfully graduate with a Masters Degree and to become a member of Certified Public Accountants.
