American CEO at RomTelecom

National fixed telephony operator RomTelecom will have a new CEO as of March 1. The CEO position, vacated by Panagiotis Kargados’ resignation in late last year, will go to US-born James Hubley. RomTelecom’s interim CEO in the meantime was OTE International vice-president George Skarpellis. Hubley’s appointment as RomTelecom CEO is a first time for the Romanian operator. Ever since OTE’s buying into it in 1998, RomTelecom has not had anything but Greek natives as CEOs. James Hubley (57) has a 30-year career with major telecom companies, such as AT&T, Bell Canada and Cesky Telecom. He was executive vice-president of Cesky Telecom for five and a half years and had 22,000 employees under his command. Hubley was involved in major restructuring projects, leveraging his cross-functional experience and creating shareholder value, the RomTelecom officials say. “I met with George Skarpellis, representing the Greek shareholders and with James Hubley. The agreement between the two shareholders requires the RomTelecom CEO to be a true professional, hardworking and backed by extensive experience. I trust RomTelecom will post positive, spectacular results as of 2003,” says Dan Nica, Communications and Information Technology minister. ZF