Boss of UK Rural Broadband ISP Quickline Exits as New Top Team Formed
The current CEO of alternative rural broadband provider Quickline, Sean Royce, has today announced that he’s retiring after nearly 5 years leading the business and is to be replaced by their Chief Transformation Officer, Mark Bowden. At the same time, the provider has promoted Martin Cook to Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Just to recap. Quickline’s full fibre (FTTP) network rollout is currently aiming to extend gigabit-capable broadband to a further 360,000 UK premises across thousands of rural communities (roughly 170k via publicly funded projects and almost 200k from commercial builds), albeit mostly across rural parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in England (3-Year Rollout Plan). The provider hopes to end 2025 with a total of 200,000 premises passed.
In terms of the latest leadership changes. Sean, who was previously KCOM’s boss and has led Quickline since its acquisition by Northleaf Capital Partners in 2021, informed the Board of his intention to retire earlier this year, allowing time for a well-planned succession. Sean’s replacement, Mark Bowden, joined the ISP earlier in 2025 as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), before taking on wider responsibilities as Chief Transformation Officer.
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Mark is said to bring extensive experience in finance, leadership, and business transformation, having previously held senior roles at Vodafone, O2 and as CFO for giffgaff, Tesco Mobile and private equity backed Checkatrade. Finally, the company has also confirmed the promotion of Martin Cook to CFO. Martin has been with Quickline for approaching four years, most recently as Director of Strategic Finance.
Sean Royce, Outgoing CEO, said:
“It has been an honour to lead Quickline and see the business evolve into one of the UK’s most ambitious rural broadband providers.
We remain on track with our full fibre rollout, having secured four large BDUK Project Gigabit contracts, and are one of the few ISPs that are fully funded, having completed a major debt financing deal in 2024.
We’ve built strong foundations and a team passionate about connecting rural communities. With Mark and Martin stepping into their new roles, Quickline is in excellent hands for the next stage of its journey.”
However, Sean will continue to support Quickline in a new capacity as Strategic Board Advisor, providing ongoing guidance on future growth and other opportunities.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Hopefully the incoming CEO will see to it that the village of Crofton, described in their “3 year rollout plan” as “Live” and “ready to order”, actually has more than just a few properties on the outskirts of the village covered by their network.