Who should fill Notebaert's shoes? Insider, outsider names considered

Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 12, 2007 at midnight

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Speculation who will take over for Dick Notebaert is just starting, and it includes candidates inside and outside the company.

Frank Popoff, lead director of Qwest's board and former chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical, said industry consolidation has resulted in the availability of some attractive candidates.

"Outside the company there's some good people and inside there's some good people," Popoff said in a telephone interview. And Popoff said there's a clear roadmap the new CEO will be expected to continue Qwest's strategy.

Former Bell South executives Mark Feidler and Dick Anderson are among those speculated as possible candidates. The Wall Street Journal also mentioned Motorola President Greg Brown and Nortel Networks CEO Mike Zafirovski.

Donna Jaegers, a telecommunications analyst with Janco Partners in Greenwood Village, said she thought the mostly likely internal candidate would be Qwest executive vice president of product development Dan Yost, the former chief operating officer of Allegiance Telecom Inc.

Qwest executive vice president Barry Allen, who was recruited by Notebaert and had worked as a top executive at Wisconsin Bell, would have been a logical heir apparent. But Allen announced his retirement earlier this month.

Or could Qwest go the way of Greenwood Village-based First Data, which failed to find a successor to CEO Rick Duques, and wound up selling to the private equity firm of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for $29 billion?

There's been speculation a private equity firm might be eyeing Qwest, or that Verizon eventually will make a bid. But if investors thought that was an imminent possibility, Qwest shares likely would have gone up Monday.

Jaegers said Monday's developments make it less likely a deal with a private-equity firm is in the works.

Popoff confirmed as much when he said that Notebaert's departure comes at a time "when we don't have anything immediately pending in the deal area."

Popoff said Qwest's board "would like to close this loop (on a Notebaert successor) pretty quickly."

Notebaert said at a Bear Stearns investment conference that the Qwest board is full of current and former CEOs who "understand how the market feels about uncertainty."

Notebaert's successor will face an array of challenges, including a continuing loss of traditional phone lines, and increasing competition from cable TV, wireless and Internet telephony companies.

Qwest still has more than $13 billion of long-term debt, and has been walking the tight rope between controlling costs and spending money on new technology, such as TV services.

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