Francesco Caio’s past experience includes being the CEO and founder of European telecom and internet service provider, Netscalibur. Before that, he was chief executive of Omintel Pronto, Italy’s second largest mobile provider, which was brought by Mannesmann.
Caio will be paid a basic salary of 700,000 pounds ($1m) a year, with a maximum annual performance bonus of up to 150% of his base salary, with 375,000 pounds ($588,700) guaranteed in the first year. Two shareholder groups have already objected to Caio’s guaranteed bonus, insisting bonuses should not be guaranteed but should reflect actual performance.
Kevin Loosemore joins C&W as chief operating officer, and will report to Caio. He used to head up the UK operations of software and hardware giant, IBM Corp, but most recently was in charge of Motorola Inc’s EMEA (European, Middle East, and Africa) division.
They replace Graham Wallace, who was ousted in January. Wallace was held responsible by angry investors for bringing the operator to its knees by burning its cash pile on a series of internet acquisitions that left it nursing huge losses.
Wallace had continued to be responsible for the day-to-day operations of C&W, but will now leave at the end of this week. His pay-off of 1.5m pounds ($2.3m) is still being finalized.
C&W still faces a difficult future, with its traditional carrier business in the Caribbean now having to cope with competition, and the company’s expensive expansion into web-hosting producing escalating losses. The global operation is not expected to become free cash flow positive until March 2004.
Source: Computerwire
