About Us

Takeshi Kawasaki was appointed CEO of Pacific Crossing in April 2025. He also serves as CEO of Seren Juno Network America, Inc., the US owner of the Juno Cable System connecting Japan and the US. He focuses on strategy and planning for the global submarine cable business unit at NTT Ltd. He was a Senior R&D Research Engineer for NTT Holdings where he led several high-speed optical transport network development projects for NTT Group. He holds a Master’s degree of multidisciplinary sciences from The University of Tokyo and an MBA from EDHEC Business School in France. In 2022, he received the Science and Technology Award from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for his contribution to the development of a 400G optical transport system.

Ichiro Kato was appointed Chief Technology Officer of Pacific Crossing in July 2019. He has more than 20 years of experience in the subsea cable industry. He joined NTT in 1996. He has been responsible for the operation and maintenance, design and installation and procurement of its international cables. He started his subsea cable career with China-US,  where he was in charge of Operation and Maintenance of subsea cable systems. The systems he has been involved with include; China-US, Japan-US, APCN2, ASE, APG, and Jupiter. He holds a master’s degree in physics from Keio University in Japan.

Jeff Hunt was appointed Vice President of Operations for Pacific Crossing in May 2011. Mr. Hunt has more than 30 years experience in the Electronics, Computer and Telecommunications industry, spanning many different technologies including Automated Test and Manufacturing, Microwave Transmission, Terrestrial DWDM Fiber Optics and Submarine Cable Systems. He has served in several key positions since joining the PC1 project team in January of 2001 including General Manager of Cable Station Operations, Technical Support Engineering Liaison and Director of Provisioning Services. Mr. Hunt also served in key roles previously while at IXC/Broadwing communications including the implementation of new fiber optic network equipment and infrastructure builds and project management of critical system restoration projects.

Paul Fernes was appointed Senior Vice President of Pacific Crossing in May 2007. Fernes has more than 20 years of experience in technology, as well as extensive leadership experience in the North American telecommunications market. He served in key roles at Level 3 Communications Inc. in the New Ventures group as well as Sales and Marketing within the Government, Asian business and Content business units. Fernes has held leadership positions with some of Silicon Valley’s leading companies such as Sun Microsystems and Cypress Semiconductors. Fernes started his career at Alcatel-India as an engineer working on the first digital telephone exchange. He holds a Master of Computer Engineering degree from LC Smith College of Engineering from Syracuse University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management from North Western University.

Masaki Sakamoto was appointed Senior Vice President of Pacific Crossing in July 2019. Sakamoto has more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunication industry. He joined NTT in 1993 performing various telecom services for enterprise customers until 1997 when Sakamoto started his global business career at NTT  International Transmission Maintenance Center (ITMC). In 2011, he was put in charge of the submarine cable business for the Carrier Relations team in the Global Business Department. He holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Yokohama National University in Japan.