As AT & T Corp. proceeds to integrate nearly 5 million cable customers acquired with MediaOne Group Inc., it will do so without some key MediaOne regional executives.
A little more than one week after closing the $44 billion acquisition, at least seven MediaOne regional vice presidents announced plans to leave, with more expected to follow.
Six senior managers at Media-One's Atlanta office gave notice last week, including vice president Ellen Filipiak, who oversaw the Atlanta operations. On June 21, Kevin Casey, senior vice president of the Northeast region-MediaOne's largest territory-resigned effective July 14.
Filipiak will be replaced by Steve White, head of AT & T Broadband's Chicago operations.
Also resigning from Atlanta last week were: vice president of engineering and operations Marwan Fawaz; vice president and general manager of MediaOne's Cable Advertising of Metro Atlanta Jon Ozor; vice president of legal and governmental affairs Dennis Lopach; vice president of business markets Ron Johnson; and vice president of human relations Roulettei Gildersleeve.
Jeff Ervin was promoted within CAMA to replace Ozor. Loretta Cecil of AT & T's legal- and government-affairs office in Atlanta assumes the duties of Lopach, who is taking early retirement. Robert Powell succeeds Gildersleeve.
Johnson's position will not be filled because employees he supervised now report to an AT & T Broadband executive in Denver.
The Atlanta departures were seen as an opportunity to cash in on stock options acquired in the merger, one observer said. "When that many people leave one office, it usually means the stock options have kicked in," added the observer, who asked not to be named.
MediaOne has five regions: Northeast, Western, Midwest, Southeast and Atlanta. It has now lost two of five regional-operations managers.
AT & T Broadband spokesman Rob Stoddard said losing some seasoned executives is to be expected in a merger the size of AT & T and MediaOne.
"I think what we are looking at is typical of the kind of changes that take place in a merger of this size," Stoddard said. "We have had a fair amount of movement in trying to get the best possible leadership. In some markets like Atlanta, there are folks who saw their severance packages as an opportunity to move on."
