Leon Williams back as BTC CEO

The Nassau Guardian

Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) Chairman Phil Bentley announced yesterday that Leon Williams will take over as the new chief executive officer of the company at the end of this month.

Williams, a former CEO of BTC, was appointed as a special adviser to Bentley in March.

He will replace current CEO Geoff Houston, who will leave the company on August 31.

Williams has been hired on a 12-month contract.

His appointment came six years after BTC fired him. At the time it was fully owned by the government.

After the firing, then chairman of BTC Julian Francis said it was not in BTC’s best interest for Williams to continue to serve in the top post.

In 2011, BTC reached a settlement with Williams, who had taken legal action against the company.

Williams’ termination was an issue of great public interest, and angered people who supported his work in telecommunications.

In April 2011, the Ingraham administration sold a 51 percent stake of BTC to Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC), which is now headed by Bentley.

Upon coming to office in 2012, Prime Minister Perry Christie appointed Williams on a committee to negotiate a two percent take back of the shares in BTC on behalf of the Bahamian people.

During a press conference at BTC headquarters on John F. Kennedy Drive yesterday, Bentley said Williams is the right leader to take the company through its next phase of development.

“Leon Williams is obviously a telephony engineer, somebody who knows the business well,” he said.

“Also we want to ensure that we have the representative of the company here today and for the future as a Bahamian.

“We recognize that we are here to serve the Bahamian people, and I very much wanted to ensure that we had a leader that could win the hearts and minds of the Bahamian people as we move into a competitive market.”

Williams said Bentley has made history by re-appointing the last Bahamian CEO before privatization in April 2011 to be the first Bahamian CEO since.

“I am looking for the support of the public as we go to the public to say to them BTC is being run by Bahamians,” Williams said.

“It is a Bahamian company, 51 percent economically owned by Bahamians. Stay with us. We will get you through the tough times.”

There had been widespread speculation that Williams was being considered to resume his old post.

Asked whether the appointment was agreed to as a part of the deal to hand over nearly two percent of CWC’s majority stake in BTC to the government, Bentley said, “A lot of speculation in the press, a lot of it, frankly, [has been] misguided.

“And a lot of comments have been quite hurtful, particularly to Leon. Let me just say categorically, this is a decision that I have taken.

“I have been under no pressure whatsoever from the BTC Board. I have been under no pressure whatsoever from the prime minister, quite the opposite.

“I have gone to him for advice from time to time and have sought the advice of the BTC Board, but this is my decision and I think it is the right decision.”

Bentley also announced a $200 million investment in BTC’s networks over the next three years.

He said he announced to investors in London two weeks ago a 30 percent increase in investment across Cable and Wireless Communications, including BTC.

The investment is expected to improve the company’s mobile network, the rate of dropped calls, coverage in soft spots and technology across its fixed and mobile networks.

Future

Bentley was also asked to respond to Prime Minister Perry Christie’s statement in the House of Assembly during his recent budget communication that the Ingraham administration’s legislative efforts to guarantee a three-year cellular monopoly to CWC in 2011 will essentially delay competition to 2015.

CWC’s monopoly on the cellular market expired in April.

Bentley said he has not gotten the background of who said what, when, and to whom back in 2011.

“[What] I can tell you absolutely, categorically is that a second cellular license will be awarded,” he said.

“Bahamian people will have a choice and we want the Bahamian people to choose BTC, not because we are the only supplier, but because we are the best supplier.

“...Frankly, that is all I am interested in. It is surprising in a way that people keep going back to a period in 2008 and in 2011.

“Can we just sort of look forward because we are investing some $200 million into The Bahamas over the next few years. That is what I am looking at.”

Christie has said the government is moving swiftly to award the second cellular license in the country in the shortest possible time.

He said the government established a task force to prepare to award the license following the expiration of CWC’s monopoly.

Bentley also confirmed that the deal between CWC and the government to transfer nearly two percent of the BTC shares in a foundation on behalf of the Bahamian people has still not been finalized, even thought it was announced in January.

He was unable to say when this would happen.

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