New management takes Romtelecom helm

He is replacing James Hubley, who became the GM of the fixed-line telephony operator in the first half of 2003. Romtelecom representatives did not give any details regarding the future position or activity Hubley will have. The employment contract between the two parts is reported to have ceased “with both sides' agreement.” Pieter Bakker, the commercial manager of the operator, left just one month ago after joining the company at the same time as Hubley. Bakker left the company as a result of the restructuring process which eliminated the commercial manager position from the administration of the company. Romtelecom is passing through a restructuring period as its profit and number of clients decreased in 2006.
Ioannidis, 57, was born in Istanbul and has been working with OTE since 1975 with a gap from 1993 to 1998 when he worked at Vodafone Greece. He has been a member of the administration board of Romtelecom since July 2006.
In the first nine months of the year, the operator's revenue fell by 4.2 percent to EUR 665 million, while net income decreased by 56.4 percent to EUR 41.6 million. The number of customers started to decrease due to competition from mobile and CaTV operators who entered the triple-services market earlier.
The operator's strategy for the next few years includes launching innovative and original services compared to the traditional telephony sector until now, with a focus on multimedia, content, internet access and data.

Roxana Mihul