After disappointing growth last year, Global Crossing Ltd., says it’s undergone a broad re-shuffling of its executive team and will spin off a new network services unit to refocus on aggressive growth.
The Bermuda-based fiber optic network builder said today it has realigned its senior management team under chief executive Tom Casey. The first move is the naming of David Walsh, former co-chief operating officer, to be the company’s new president and its sole chief operating officer. Walsh will report to Casey, and will be responsible for the company’s global operations, including the network, sales and marketing, product development and delivery, and customer care.
Gary Cohen, who together with Walsh had been co-COO, was named the president and chief operating officer of the new Global Crossing Solutions unit. The spin-off unit will provide managed network outsourcing and solutions to customers globally, and fits in with Global Crossing’s latest growth strategy.
“We are committed to accelerating the rollout of the data and IP services,” Casey said, commenting on the changes. Walsh, Casey said, has “a deep understanding of next-generation network technologies,” and will help lead the charge to make the company’s sale of transport services and bandwidth to business and carrier customers more efficient.
In November, Global Crossing reported an operating loss of $330 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2000, after taking into account depreciation, amortization, goodwill, intangibles, stock related expenses, non-cash cost of capacity sold and the change in the cash portion of deferred revenue. During the same period last year, the company reported a loss of only $139 million, under the same criteria.
Casey said, in a prepared statement, that under Gary Cohen’s leadership, the new Global Crossing Solutions unit will “be one of our key growth drivers as MNCs increasingly demand sophisticated managed network outsourcing and solutions.”
Other management changes were announced today as well:
Wally Dawson, formerly chief executive officer of Atlantic Crossing, was named to the new position of executive vice president of Global Network, and will be responsible for all integrated network operations, including planning, design and construction.
Wim Huisman, chief executive officer of Global Crossing Europe, will retire, the company said, and will be succeeded by Carl Grivner, Global Crossing’s former chief operating officer for North America. Huisman will remain onboard the company as the non-executive chairman of Global Crossing Europe.
Grivner’s former position will be filled by Jim Demitrieus, who had been the president of IXnet and IPC — recent acquisitions that are now being folded into Global Crossing.
Chief Financial Officer Dan Cohrs; Jim Gorton, the general counsel; John Comparin, head of human resources; and Joe Perrone, the head of finance; have all been promoted to executive vice presidents, the company said.
Perrone will also assume responsibility for further developing and monitoring performance metrics and business process improvements at Global Crossing.
Global Crossing is attempting to build one of the world’s largest global, IP-based fiber optic networks, which, when completed, will serve five continents, 27 countries and more than 200 major cities. The company has principal offices in Miami, Los Angeles, London, Amsterdam, Madison, N.J., Rochester, N.Y. and Dublin.
