Qwest Communications International Inc. has chosen Edward Mueller as successor to CEO Dick Notebaert and, due to a dearth of internal candidates, the appointee does not come from the Bell company.
The carrier¡¯s board on Friday named Mueller, 60, CEO after examining internal and external candidates globally.
Notebaert on June8 said he would retire after five years at Qwest. No obvious replacemements came to analysts¡¯ minds on the news. Typically, a CFO or operations executive would step in, Donna Jaegers, a telecom analyst for Janco Partners Inc. in Colorado, told PHONE+ in June. But Oren Shaffer, vice chairman and CFO, resigned in April, and Barry Allen, executive vice president of operations, retired on June 29. Internally, that left Dan Yost, executive vice president of product, who came to Qwest from Allegiance Telecom Inc. in 2004. ¡°Other than that, there¡¯s not a whole lot of other internal candidates that spring to mind,¡± Jaegers said.
Mueller has held a number of positions in telecom and was Notebaert¡¯s top recommendation. Mueller ¨C whose name is pronounced as Miller ¨C has served on the VeriSign Inc. board of directors since March 2005, presiding as chairman since May of this year. He also was president and CEO of Ameritech from 2000 to 2002; vice president of SBC International Operations from 1999 to 2000; and president and CEO of Pacific Bell from 1997 to 1999. From 2003 to 2006, Mueller did a stint as CEO of Williams-Sonoma Inc.
Mueller has signed a three-year employment contract with Qwest, as well as an agreement for equity compensation. The three-year deal will automatically renew for one-year terms unless Mueller or Qwest cancels. Mueller will be paid a base salary of $1.2 million and a bonus of up to 20 percent. Both the salary and bonus can increase annually. For the remainder of 2007, Mueller will receive $947,000.