Former HP executive Michael D. Capellas, the newly appointed chairman and CEO of WorldCom Inc., said today he is committed to restoring integrity at the beleaguered company and emerging from bankruptcy without selling off the company’s core assets.
Speaking at a press conference this morning in New York, Capellas, the former president and COO of Hewlett-Packard Co., said management will focus on three areas over the next 100 days: taking care of customers, reinvigorating employees and reestablishing integrity. Capellas will officially begin his new job Dec. 2.
“We will have an unwavering commitment to the highest possible standards of integrity,” said Capellas, who is replacing John Sidgmore, who had been CEO since the April departure of Bernie Ebbers. Capellas is also replacing chairman Bert Roberts.
Sidgmore said Friday Capellas had the full support of the board of directors, creditors committee and himself.
Noting he would cooperate fully with the federal probes over the company’s gargantuan accounting scandal, Capellas said it is not his intention to replace the entire management team. However, he said he would add some people.
“We have a strong management team that will be the core going forward,” he said. “This is not a complete rebuild of the management team.”
Capellas, who describes himself as a tech geek with a melee of converged networking equipment at his home, said WorldCom would establish a customer advisory board to communicate with the chief information officers of companies.
“This is a fraternity of the highest order,” he said.
Capellas left Hewlett-Packard on Monday. He said he first learned of an opportunity at WorldCom at a birthday party in California, where he socialized with some WorldCom employees.
Asked by a reporter Friday if he felt a large sense of responsibility to restore the trust of “Joe Public” in light of the tainted reputations of chief executives over the last year, Capellas said: “I feel an enormous sense of responsibility. I think there’s a great great opportunity … to be an absolute role model of governance and integrity.”
WorldCom, the No. 2 long distance provider, and owner of the giant Internet backbone carrier, UUNET, filed the largest bankruptcy petition in U.S. history this summer after disclosing billions of dollars in inflated earnings, which resulted in the indictments of a handful of executives.
The company, which recently disclosed its accounting misstatements top $9 billion, aims to emerge from bankruptcy in mid-2003.
