Mark Simpson, the chief executive officer of African broadband provider SEACOM, has resigned.

This is according to a statement from the company released on Thursday.

SEACOM operates a 17,000km subsea broadband cable that connects Africa’s eastern coastline to Europe and Southern Asia. But the company has also expanded its horizons by building the likes of data centres through its unit Pamoja.

SEACOM says that Simpson has decided to leave the company to pursue personal interests.

“Mark has lead the business from a successful project finance initiative into a dynamic broadband subsea cable operator,” says SEACOM in a statement.

“SEACOM Founder and original CEO Brian Herlihy has agreed to assume the leadership role at SEACOM. The SEACOM business is well known to Brian given his role in establishing SEACOM.

“Brian is tasked with continuing the expansion of SEACOM’s product offering and world class customer service offering into Africa and beyond,” says SEACOM.

Simpson took the role as SEACOM CEO in 2011.