New Telus Corp. president and CEO Darren Entwhistle is gearing up for a management shuffle to ensure his company is fit for its competitive fight with Bell Canada.
“We’re going through a corporate restructuring,” says Telus spokesperson Nick Culo. The company will increase its focus on customers, targeting different markets such as small- and mid-sized companies, large corporations, wholesale buyers and individual consumers.
For the consumer, it means all Telus products will be obtained from the same Consumer Division, whether it’s local and long-distance phone service, Internet, high-speed Internet and call-management services.
However, cellphone service from Calgary-based Telus Mobility will continue to be offered separately.
Entwhistle expects to have his new management team, which will be a combination of old and new blood, in place within a couple of weeks, and to start operating under a new structure by January 2001.
The cash-rich company is also on the hunt for acquisitions.
The changes, says Culo, “are about focusing on expanding our national wireless, data and Internet capabilities.”
Cell-Loc’s loss is Wi-Lan’s gain this week. Calgary wireless guru Hatim Zaghloul has stepped down from the board of Cell-Loc Inc. to spend more time on his company, Wi-Lan Inc.
But it shouldn’t come as a surprise at either company. Zaghloul and Michel Fattouche, Cell-Loc’s president and CEO, are long-time allies.
Both were born in Egypt where they were school and army friends, then came to Canada and earned doctoral degrees. They worked together at Telus Corp. before launching Cell-Loc and Wi-Lan.
Although Zaghloul’s move was an attempt to separate the fortunes of the two companies, the shares of both Calgary firms continued to take a severe beating in the stock market last week.
Cell-Loc shares, which hit a record high of $80.85 last March, had slid to $12.05 late last week on the TSE. Wi-Lan was trading about $20 late last week on the TSE, compared with its March 1 high of $87.50.
The two co-founders still jointly own about 25 per cent of Cell-Loc’s shares and 30 per cent of Wi-Lan’s.
Cell-Loc is a wireless location technology and service provider, while Wi-Lan provides high-speed wireless data communications.
Zaghloul’s resignation leaves the Cell-Loc board with eight members, including Fattouche. The board’s chairman is Don Romaniuk, president of Telus Advertising Services Inc.
Other members are Tom Saunders, president and CEO of Health Resource Group Inc.; lawyer Charles Hotzel; Frank King, president of Metropolitan Investment Corp.; Philip Ladouceur, CEO of FutureLink Corp.; Michael Lisogurski, executive vice-president of corporate development for Bell Canada International; and Barb Richardson, president of BARichardson Consulting.
Alan Jones has become a director of VisuaLabs Inc. Jones joined IBM in 1968, where he has been responsible for strategic planning for hardware, software and systems portfolios involving display products.
As well as holding a degree in physics from the University of Wales, he has an MSc in computer science from the University of Bradford.
Calgary-based VisuaLabs Inc. has developed advanced imaging technologies, including 3-D imagery for 3-D televisions, computer monitors and video projectors, that can be seen without special glasses or virtual-reality headgear.
Said VisuaLabs chairman CEO and chief scientist Sheldon Zelitt: “We have been working closely with Alan for more than a year- and-a-half in developing our common vision of advanced monitor products.
“He has been of great assistance and value to the corporation prior to joining us formally.”
Other recent additions to the company’s board include John Kendall, a U of C professor of computer science, and Luther Haave, who has spent 35 years in television production and broadcast management.
VisuaLabs trades on the Canadian Venture Exchange.
NovAtel Inc. of Calgary, has announced that it is losing two senior executives. President and CEO Douglas R. Reid, and Randy R. Mabbott, the senior vice-president of corporate affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary, have left the company to pursue other career opportunities.
Their duties will be assumed on an interim basis by Werner Gartner, NovAtel’s executive vice-president and chief financial officer.
NovAtel designs and markets products that that determine precise geographic locations through the Global Positioning System (GPS). Its shares are listed on Nasdaq.
Ian Hill is the new vice-president of finance for Quick Link Communications Ltd. (QLC).
The company, based in Calgary, designs, operates and implements satellite-based Internet, voice, fax, video and data networks.
Hill’s past positions include being vice-president of finance and treasury for E-Zone Networks Inc., corporate controller for MetroNet Communications Corp. and director of taxation for TransCanadaEnergy Ltd., a subsidiary of TransCanada Pipelines.
