Erstwhile Fairfax Media chief executive David Kirk is set to invest and join the board of new data cable company Pacific Fibre, which was launched earlier this by TradeMe founder Sam Morgan, The Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall and Xero founder Rod Drury.

Also involved in establishing the new company are ex-Vodafone chief marketing officer Mark Rushworth, technology industry veteran John Humphrey and businessman Lance Wiggs.

Pacific Fibre said on Thursday that Mr Rushworth is assuming the role of chief executive in the company as it added that along with Mr Kirk's coming on board, a fresh group of investors also took stakes on Pacific namely Gareth Morgan, Seaworks chair Bill Day and MYOB founder Craig Winkler.

According to reports by nzherald.co.nz, Pacific Fibre's estimated cost has already dwindled to $NZ500 million or $A408 million from the initial cost of $NZ900 million or $A734.45 million, as the company announced that a planned capital raising would be undertaken right before Christmas time.

As the company's chief executive, Mr Rushworth said that on top of his list is conferring with potential clients of Pacific Fibre as he shared that "over the past three months I have met with Asian, Australasian and North American companies and we've been very encouraged by the response we've been getting."

Pacific Fibre is embarking on its ambitious plan to hook up Australia, New Zealand and the United States using fibre cable by 2013 as the company touted that its data cable facilities would carry five times of the present capacity offered by Southern Cross, which currently operates data cable service connecting to the US.