Alcatel calls former BT CEO to the rescue
Alcatel-Lucent named its new management team yesterday, handing the task of turning round the ailing French-US telecoms equipment group to former BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen and French business grandee Philippe Camus.
The world’s biggest provider of fixed-line telecoms networks has seen its market value drop more than 60 per cent in the 21 months since Alcatel and Lucent merged and the appointment of Verwaayen as chief executive and Camus as non-executive chairman come a month after the dismissal of their predecessors following a series of profit and sales warnings.
Camus, 60, a senior partner at French media group Lagardere, will replace Serge Tchuruk as of 1 October while Verwaayen, 56, will take over as chief executive replacing Patricia Russo. Investors have been pushing hard for many months to get rid of Russo and Tchuruk and the stock has regained 30 per cent since their ousting but remains 60 per cent below its December 2006 level.
Verwaayen, a Dutch national, has extensive experience in the telecoms industry and the problems at Alcatel-Lucent will be familiar to him.
“I am committed to building significant and sustainable value for our shareholders, customers and employees,” he said in a statement.
Verwaayen joined BT in 2002 as the former British fixed line monopoly emerged from a massive restructuring process and deep cost cuts.
