AT&T Broadband's new management team is continuing to keep it in the
family, hiring another former Continental Cablevision Inc. executive, Kevin
Casey, and embarking on an ambitious restructuring.
Casey, who had been with Continental and successor MediaOne Group Inc. for
two decades, was named executive vice president of operations and will report to
new AT&T Broadband chief operating officer Ron Cooper.
Casey had spent the past 18 months at Pilot House Ventures Group LLC, the
Boston-based investment firm that was the former home of AT&T Broadband's
recently appointed top three executives: CEO Bill Schleyer, Cooper and chief
technology officer David Fellows.
Pilot House is controlled by former Continental chairman and current AT&T
Corp. director Amos Hostetter. Schleyer, Cooper and Fellows are former
Continental executives.
AT&T Broadband is also eliminating a management layer -- the presidents
of its Broadband East and West divisions.
Last month, Broadband West president Teresa Elder announced that she would
resign to spend more time with her family. This week, Broadband East president
Jim Mazur said he would resign effective Nov. 30 to pursue other
opportunities.
In a memo to employees, Schleyer said those positions would not be filled and
managers who had previously reported to the East and West presidents would be
assigned to corporate teams representing their functions.
'We believe these layers generally add cost and complexity, and we can
simplify our structure with this move,' Schleyer said in the memo.
According to one source familiar with AT&T, the moves are another
indication that Schleyer, Cooper and Fellows are in it for the long haul.
'This answers the question whether the new team was going to roll up their
sleeves and really get involved in the day-to-day process or were they just
going to dress it up,' the source said. 'It's pretty obvious that they are here
to get involved.'
It had been speculated that the new team was hired to get AT&T Broadband
ready for sale.
Although AT&T Corp. rejected the only formal offer for the cable unit --
from Comcast Corp. -- the company is expected to decide its fate by the end of
the year. That could either be a sale, a partnership with another company or
keeping the unit independent.
The case for independence got another boost with the restructuring moves. The
source familiar with AT&T said more structural changes are coming.
'This is the first in a series of steps,' the source said. 'They are looking
at what the next step will be.'
Cooper will also get some added responsibilities. Several executives at
AT&T Broadband's Denver headquarters who previously reported to the
president will now report to him.
They include senior vice president of human resources David Brunick, senior
vice president of media services Judi Heady, senior vice president of marketing
and sales Nancy McGee and senior vice president of programming Allan Singer.
In field operations, senior vice president Joyce Gab-Kneeland, in Chicago;
David Grain, in Boston; and Don Schena, in the San Francisco Bay area, will also
report directly to Cooper.
Casey will be responsible for five other markets, and the following senior
vice presidents will report to him: Kelvin Fee, Florida; Curt Henninger,
Portland, Ore.; LeAnn Talbot, Seattle; Paula Trustdorf, Dallas; and Steve White,
Atlanta.
AT&T Broadband is looking for another operations leader who will report
to Cooper. Until then, senior vice presidents including Randy Bang, in the Rocky
Mountain region; Gary Boles, in Salt Lake City; Jeff Harkman, in central
California; Jeff Harshman, in Pittsburgh; Debi Picciolo, in Los Angeles; Joe
Stackhouse, in Denver; and Tom Unglaub, in the Midwest region, will also report
to the COO.
