Qwest Communications International chairman and chief executive
Richard Notebaert appointed three new executives and made several
organisational changes, the company said yesterday
Notebaert was named chairman and chief executive after Joseph
Nacchio resigned under pressure last month.
Oren Schaffer replaces Robin Szeliga as chief financial officer
(CFO). Schaffer held CFO positions at Ameritech and Goodyear.
Szeliga remains as an executive vice-president, focusing on Qwest's
debt reduction.
Gary Lytle succeeds Lauren Belvin as vice-president for policy and
law, dealing with regulators and other officials in Washington.
Joan Walker replaces Michael Tarpey as senior vice-president of
corporate communications.
Qwest has reorganised the company around three units serving
consumers, businesses and wholesale customers. Annette Jacobs has
been appointed executive vice-president of the consumer unit,
Clifford Holtz executive vice-president of the business customer
unit, and Gordon Martin executive vice-president of the whole
customers unit.
The CFO replacement comes as Qwest struggles with a debt load of
around $26.6bn (£17.5bn), a steep decline in its phone and Internet
business, and an investigation by the Securities and Exchange
Commission into the company's accounting practices.
The SEC is examining, among other things, the capacity swap deals
that added nearly $1bn to Qwest's revenue in 2001. Under these
deals, the carrier sold capacity on its fibre-optic network to
rival carriers and booked the revenue up front. At the same time,
it purchased almost identical amounts of capacity from other
carriers and booked those costs as a capital expense, which could
be written off over time.
While Qwest is not alone in practising such swaps, analysts and
investors have questioned their validity.
Meanwhile, the US Justice Department has also launched a criminal
investigation into Qwest, the
Wall Street Journal reported
on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the situation. The
carrier told the newspaper that it was not aware of an
investigation by the department.
Qwest is a co-owner of the European data communications company
KPNQwest, together with Koninklijke KPN. The Dutch company, which
is seeking protection from creditors, shut down its Ebone Internet
network last week and is expected to sell off its pan-European
network in pieces.