Sarah McComb | Principal Network Business Developer
Amazon Web Services

Sarah McComb is a Principal Network Business Developer with Amazon Web Services responsible for strategic subsea investments across the Pacific and global subsea regulatory engagements. With over 20 years’ experience in network acquisition and planning, Sarah has been with AWS for over 7 years and spent 4+ years at Microsoft prior. Outside of an abiding fascination for all things subsea cables, Sarah is a co-founder and the current president of the Women’s Tech Forum, a not for profit networking organization focused on the promotion and advancement of women in the cloud, tech, and data center infrastructure industries. Sarah hold a BA in Foreign Language International Affairs from the University of Puget Sound.

Appearances:

Submarine Networks EMEA 2026 - Day 2 @ 09:00

Geopolitics and the submarine cable industry

A growing number of governments now recognise subsea telecommunications cables as critical infrastructure, vital to national security, the economy and the delivery of public services. What should such a qualification mean for public-private cooperation around threat detection and incident response?
Is intentional damage to subsea cables by States or State-backed actors really increasing as often reported by the media?
In what way would the response to such threats differ from the kinds of threats the industry traditionally deals with?
What are the opportunities of current geopolitical developments for the subsea cable industry? Are there evident winners and losers?
From a corporate strategy perspective, how should the industry be thinking about future geopolitical risks?

Anna Butchart, Subsea, Independent