Having effectively negotiated the sale of AAPT to Telecom New Zealand, Larry Williams has resigned as chief executive officer and plans to return to the US, although he will remain on the company's board. He will be replaced by COO Ron Nissen.
Williams joined AAPT in January 1992 and is credited with building the company into the third largest telecommunications carrier in Australia. "Under Larry's direction AAPT was the first to offer competition to Telstra in the long distance telephony market and has since continued to play a leading role in ensuring that the benefits of effective competition have been passed on to consumers," noted Lee Casey, chairman of AAPT.
Yelland parts ways with Solution 6
After moving from Telstra in March to take the COO's job at Solution 6, and enduring some troubled times there following the departure of CEO Chris Tyler, Lindsay Yelland has "elected to discontinue his service as executive director".
Yelland has said he intends to pursue "other corporate opportunities" and since the potential exists that those activities could create a conflict of interest with continued ties to Solution 6, he has decided to decline the invitation to remain on the company's board.
NetComm brings in hard-hitting CFO
Feeling the need for firm financial guidance as it makes the transition from modem manufacturer to broadband carrier, NetComm has appointed Vicki Potts as CFO. Potts was recruited from New Zealand, where she was CFO of New Zealand telco Saturn Communications until its merger with Telstra NZ in April 2000. She was then appointed treasurer of the merged Telstra Saturn company.
In addition to her time with Saturn, Potts has served as a consultant for Telecom NZ and spent 10 years in a variety of finance roles in the UK.
In July NetComm recruited Robert Gillan from Alcatel to become chief technical officer, and last month it appointed industry veteran Terry Winters as chairman.
Omni group rattles the board
In the wake of less than satisfactory results in the year to June 30, telecommunications equipment manufacturer Omni Group has made a number of changes to its board and to its executive team. Lou Richard and Peter Robson, both executive directors of the Newport Capital Group, have been appointed to the board, and Ray Liggett and Richard Darsono remain on the board.
The company recently promoted Ian Aikman to director and chief operating officer, and appointed Donna Anderson CFO. A spokesman said Anderson has worked as an auditor and has comprehensive experience in the role of CFO. Omni is still searching for a general manager of sales and marketing.
Around the traps
Aggressive listed telco Amcom Telecommunications has recruited senior Telstra executive Bruno Scarcella to take the job of business director of wholesale services. In that role he will head the company's East Coast operations in Melbourne and Sydney. Amcom has also appointed Colin Bettis national network manager. Bettis started his career with British Telecom in the UK in 1980 and moved to Australia in the mid-90s.
Internet hosting company Hostworks has recruited Tom Galantomos from Compaq to take the job of general manager of sales and marketing. At Compaq he was regional manager for South Australia and the Northern Territory. Hostworks is based in Adelaide but provides hosting services for a number of large Internet sites, including ninemsn.
Offshore a door is slamming
It's probably of little significance to the industry, but it's nonetheless worth recording, that Joel Klein is leaving the US Justice Department at the end of this month. In case you want to know why we care, Klein was head of the DoJ's antitrust division and led the government's case against Microsoft. Although Klein has given no reason for his move, it has been suggested that since his appointment was political and Bill Clinton's reign as president is coming to a close, the time was right. Microsoft's share price jumped from $US64.00 to $US65.75 on the news of his resignation.
Dr Jim Goodnight has begun handing over responsibility for most of the running of day-to-day operations at SAS Institute to Andre Boisvert, who joined the company in February and now is president and COO. Goodnight, who has run SAS since it was formed in 1976, remains as CEO and chairman. It appears that the move is being made to prepare SAS for a public share offering some time in the next five years, but probably late in 2001. The company cracked the $A1 billion annual revenue mark for the first time last year.
Mary Coleman, who ran troubled ERP developer Baan for seven months before resigning in January this year, has taken the CEO's job at RightWorks, a small company that develops business-to-business commerce software in San Francisco. After leaving Baan Coleman had spent some time working for investment firm Internet Capital Group, which has invested in RightWorks.