Airai, Palau: Belau Submarine Cable Corporation CEO Robin Russell will hand over to Rhinehart Silas on December 19th 2023.
This is a planned transition, with Mr Silas joining BSCC in March 2022 as Commercial Manager and understudy to the CEO. He has been involved with BSCC since the initialisation of the project in 2014 and is a seasoned senior manager with an extensive background in financial and general management, including Chairman of PNCC from 2013 to 2017, Advisor to the Executive Director at World Bank 2004 – 2006 and 2016 – 2018, Asian Development Bank 2009-2012 and Director level positions in the Palau Ministry of Finance 2013 – 2016 and 2019 – 2022.
From 2024, specialist high-level decision support and operational expertise will be provided to BSCC by Pacific Cables Management, a company with vast experience in the submarine networks business in the Pacific Islands.
Mr Russell is retiring from full-time work, after a career of 50 years in the telecommunications industry, the last seven with BSCC.
About BSCC
Belau Submarine Cable Corporation (BSCC) was established in late 2015 by the Palau government to implement a submarine fiber optic cable network connecting the Republic of Palau with the wider world. Funding of US$25M was provided by the Asian Development Bank. Prior to this initiative, Palau’s only connectivity was through expensive, low speed satellite links. The BSCC cable was Ready for Service December 7th 2017.
Since 2017 BSCC has seen rapid capacity growth, spurring new developments across the whole Palau community in business, social interactions, education, medicine, entertainment and government. Accordingly, BSCC is currently building PC2, a second submarine fiber connection for Palau, to ensure additional connectivity options and resilience. PC2 is supported by grants and debt from the USA, Australia and Japan.
For more information, please visit the BSCC web site at: https://www.belaucable.com