The company has given no explanation for Erickson’s departure, but said that it was “on his own accord for personal reasons”. Erickson is 38 and last year CNN named him as the eighth best paid person under 40 in the US. CNN calculated his pay, stock and options to be worth $9.5 million a year.
The departure is clearly not acrimonious, as Erickson “will continue to be active in his role as co-COO until late July”, said Zayo, and he will present for the company at an investment conference in New York next week.
Dan Caruso, the CEO, said: “Matt is an extraordinarily valuable member of Zayo’s executive team, and has been from Zayo’s inception. I will forever be grateful for Matt’s contributions to Zayo’s success.”
Caruso said: “Morley and Erickson made a great team as co-COOs, with each of them, at various times over the past few years, being responsible for the range of the day-to-day functions of Zayo. Matt’s departure affords us the opportunity to combine all these functions under Chris, who is well prepared for the COO scope.”
Morley has been responsible for overseeing the business segments of dark fibre solutions, network connectivity, and cloud and colocation. Erickson has been responsible for global sales, marketing and customer service functions.
Erickson first met Caruso at Level 3 Communications, when Caruso was group vice president of Level 3’s product and marketing organisation. Before setting up Zayo, they worked at ICG, taking it private and then selling it to Level 3.
