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IS a
major shakeup happening again in the PLDT Group?
BusinessMirror sources said over the weekend that four
key officials have resigned from the Philippine Long
Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT). Another one who heads the
retail group of the company is set to leave by the end
of the year.
But what
could be more surprising is the persistent information
that PLDT and Smart Communications Inc. president
Napoloen Nazareno might be taken out of Smart and will
focus on the much smaller fixed-line business of the
phone giant, according to the sources.
PLDT
chairman Manuel Pangilinan, however, denied that
Nazareno, who had an infighting with former Smart
marketing whiz Anastacio Martirez two years ago, is
being pulled out from the cellular firm.
“There
is no truth at all to the rumor about Napoleon Nazareno.
He remains president and chief executive officer, and
there are no plans to change that status,” said
Pangilinan in a text message.
Nazareno
is the president of the PLDT group. He heads Smart and
Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel), the smaller cellular
unit of the group.
Nazareno
did not reply when sough for comment last Thursday. The
same sources said Nazareno will be replaced by
MediaQuest Holdings Inc. president and chief executive
officer (CEO) Orlando Vea, who founded Smart in 1991 and
led the company to becoming the country’s largest mobile
carrier by 1995.
Vea is
the former president of Smart. He left the Group in
1999. A few years later, he came back to head MediaQuest,
the investment vehicle of the PLDT Beneficial Trust
Fund.
“An
indication that Nazareno is leaving Smart is that he has
started to bid farewell to his team in Smart,” said a
source.
Other
sources said they have been sensing “cracks in the
management team of the PLDT group.” “There seems to be a
management meltdown happening,” one official said.
While
denying any plan to move Nazareno, Pangilinan made it
clear recently that “a reorganization is being
considered.” But he stressed that “there have been no
resignations of major officers and staff at all.”
Still,
the same sources said the first wave of top caliber
resignations came from Rose Montenegro who led the
successful rise of PLDT’s call-center business.
Montenegro, who worked for the company for seven years,
was followed by Ernest Ku, the CEO of the newly acquired
business process outsourcing business, SPI Technologies
Inc. Both executives who packed up and left were under
Ray Espinosa, a PLDT board member, president and CEO of
ePLDT, the IT unit under the PLDT Group.
Next to
leave was PLDT and Smart chief operating adviser Don
Rae, who was responsible for the technology and
innovations that drove Smart and Smart Broadband Inc. to
be No. 1. He worked for the company for 10 years and
left three months ago to join a major telecommunications
firm in India.
A newly
hired executive of MediaQuest also left recently. After
less than a year, Raymund Miranda resigned to take the
role of Asian head of NBC Universal.
Miranda
kept mum when asked if he has any knowledge about the
alleged management shakedown.
Menardo
Jimenez Jr., who helped stabilize the vacuum left by
Martirez in Smart and who helped grow both PLDT and
Smart broadband to over 500,000 subscribers, tendered
his resignation last August. He is set to leave by the
end of the year for personal reasons. He is PLDT’s
retail business group head.
Rogelio
Quevedo, regulatory management office group head, was
reportedly “put in the freezer.” He refused to comment.
Industry
observers speculate that Danilo Mojica, Smart wireless
consumer division head and who has over 20 years of
experience in marketing and sales, could take over the
post of Jimenez.
If and
when this happens, Mojica’s post which, at one point,
belonged to Martirez, will be vacated. This scenario,
they said, is fueling speculation of a comeback of
Martirez.
“This is
not at all impossible. It may also be why Nazareno will
be taken out of Smart because, as we all know, Martirez
could not get along well with Nazareno, his former
boss,” said the sources.
Jimenez
took over Martirez’s post and was designated
officer-in-charge of marketing and sales of Smart prior
to the appointment of Mojica.
Martirez,
meanwhile, now works for Sinarmas Telecom in Indonesia
as its CEO. Martirez’s marketing genius is recognized in
the industry. He is touted as among those instrumental
in building Smart into the country’s most profitable
mobile-phone company. Smart and Piltel registered 28.3
million subscribers in the first nine months.
The
BusinessMirror sent a text message to Martirez to get
his side. He, however, did not reply.
It will
be recalled that a major shakeup in Smart happened in
November 2005. Martirez and chief financial adviser
Peter Lawrence were asked to resign reportedly on
continued differences over financial policies. Back
then, Martirez denied that he was fired or was he asked
to resign. He also denied that he had been at
loggerheads with several senior managers at Smart and
PLDT.
“The
news of Martirez’s ouster spread like wildfire in Cebu
where the Ad Congress was held. It was two years ago
when a major shakeup in Smart happened. Nazareno’s
attacker was fired along with
Lawrence.
Today, rumors are flying that it is now Nazareno who has
been taken out of Smart. The new CEO could be Vea, or
there could be a comebacking Martirez,” said another
source. |
