Steve Smith, the CEO of global interconnection and data center company Equinix, has resigned with immediate effect “after exercising poor judgment with respect to an employee matter.”

The Equinix Board of Directors, “in the best interests of the company,” accepted the resignation and has appointed executive chairman Peter Van Camp as interim CEO.

Equinix provided no further details about the reason for the decision.

Unrelated to financial performance

“The Board gave this matter the deepest consideration and recognizes the many contributions Steve made over the past 11 years to achieve the global scale, reach and market leadership the company enjoys today,” Van Camp said.

“He has worked hard to grow and sustain the business, and we greatly appreciate his efforts. I also want to emphasize that this action was not related to the company’s operational performance or financial condition, both of which remain strong. The Board and leadership team remain fully committed to the strategy.”

During his time as CEO of Equinix, Smith, 61, grew the company’s annual sales from $400 million to a projected $4.35 billion for 2017.

In his most recent company blog post, Smith said: “As I look ahead, I know we have the potential to be remembered as one of the companies that enabled the cloud to become “real” globally, or helped the IoT move from a concept to a central driver of business, or helped bring to life any other tech trend you can name. I want to be in the middle of what makes it all work.

“And I’m deeply thankful for the time I have already spent at the center of all that opportunity, helping people and companies connect to it, here at Equinix.”

Smith’s replacement, Van Camp, has worked at Equinix for more than 17 years, including serving as CEO from 2000 to 2007. His new position could be temporary, however, with the board commencing a formal process to appoint a new CEO.

Shares in Equinix fell nearly three percent in after hours trading.

“The company is well-positioned strategically, with tremendous depth at the leadership level and a passionate team that will guide the business and continue to drive the performance of the company,” Van Camp added.

“With our 2018 strategy and plan securely in place, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the role Equinix plays in helping companies evolve from their traditional business practices to the digital world by globally interconnecting with the people, locations, cloud services and data critical to their operations.”