30th Mar 2006 09:01
Announcement 30 March 2006 CABLE & WIRELESS - ORGANISATION STRUCTURE AND BOARD MEMBERSHIP As announced on 31 January 2006, Cable and Wireless plc (Cable & Wireless) isestablishing a new organisation and management structure designed to maximiseshareholder value over the next three years through the creation of twooperationally self-contained businesses, International and UK. This will ensurededicated management focus on the different financial and operationalcharacteristics of each.Richard Lapthorne, Chairman, said: "Since I became Chairman of Cable & Wirelessthree years ago, the priorities have been to remove the risks to the financialsecurity of the Group and to put in place the strategic tools for the future.These tasks have been completed. Now we are concentrating on improvingoperational effectiveness. The changes announced today are designed to focusthe organisation on the creation of shareholder value through delivering thisimproved performance by giving our operating managers the right balance ofautonomy and accountability to drive value for the benefit of shareholders".The key changes introduced with effect from 1 April 2006 are: * The International and UK activities will be run as separate business units, each with its own Operating Board, which will report to the Cable and Wireless plc Board; * Membership of each Operating Board will include operating executives from each business, including the responsible Group Managing Director (Harris Jones and John Pluthero respectively) and shareholder directors from the Group corporate centre. The shareholder directors will represent the interests of shareholders in Cable and Wireless plc and will hold tightly defined reserve powers; * Each business unit will have its own balance sheet and the appropriate capital structure to ensure effective deployment of resources to operations; * A new management incentive scheme will be introduced. This is not yet final but is designed to reward the management teams in each business in proportion to the shareholder value created by that business; * The Group corporate centre function has been reshaped with the objective of transferring all shared services to the two business units and reducing overall costs, while ensuring proper governance and control; * A new role of Group Managing Director, Central and Finance Director is created and Tony Rice, currently a non-executive director, has accepted the role with immediate effect. This role includes the tasks associated with the finance director - in addition, Clare Waters, Director of External Affairs, and Nick Cooper, Group General Counsel & Company Secretary, will report to him; and * The three Group Managing Directors, together with George Battersby, Group HR Director, will report to the Chairman, Richard Lapthorne. Accompanying these changes, the composition of the Cable and Wireless plc Boardhas been reviewed with the objective of creating a smaller body more alignedwith its requirements under the new organisation. Lord Robertson of Port Ellenwill retire from the Group Board from 1 April in order to concentrate on hisnew role as Chairman of the International business. Graham Howe, SeniorIndependent Director, will retire in June and Bernard Gray, Chairman of theRemuneration Committee, and Rob Rowley, Group Deputy Chairman, will both retirefrom the Board at the Annual General Meeting in July.Richard Lapthorne commented: "When we started the task of putting Cable &Wireless back on track, I had to find senior managers who were prepared to risktheir reputations in order to help both me and the Company. Bernard Gray, TonyRice and Rob Rowley responded right at the beginning and were joined soon afterby Graham Howe and Kasper Rorsted. Without the commitment and wisdom of thatearly group, I doubt if we would have been able to overcome the survivalchallenges facing us at that time and achieve a further total shareholderreturn of over 150% in three years, placing it in the upper quartile ofperformance for its industry peer group".Charles Herlinger, Group CFO, will step down at the end of May followingcompletion of the Report and Accounts for 2005/06.As previously announced, Francesco Caio will step down as Group Chief Executiveon 1 April.Commenting on these changes, Richard Lapthorne said: "The task facing theexecutive directors over the past three years has been neither straightforwardnor easy and I would like to thank Charles Herlinger for the tireless effortshe has made during his time as CFO. I have previously remarked on FrancescoCaio's contribution - without his leadership and vision, I do not believe wewould have had the strategic tools to contemplate the changes we are announcingtoday.Notes to editors1. Board compositionTaking account of these changes, the boards will comprise the following:Cable and Wireless plc Board: * Richard Lapthorne, Chairman * George Battersby, Group HR Director * Harris Jones, Group Managing Director International * John Pluthero, Group Managing Director UK and Chairman of the UK * Tony Rice, Group Managing Director Central and Finance Director * Clive Butler, Non-executive Director, Senior Independent Director * Kate Nealon, Non-executive Director, Chairman of the Remuneration Committee * Kasper Rorsted, Non-executive Director, Chairman of the Audit Committee * Agnes Touraine, Non-executive Director International Operating Board: * Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, Chairman * Harris Jones, Group Managing Director International * Other operating executives from the International business * Tony Rice, Group Managing Director Central and Finance Director (shareholder director) * George Battersby, Group HR Director (shareholder director) * Nick Cooper, Group General Counsel & Company Secretary (shareholder director) * Clare Waters, Director of External Affairs UK Operating Board: * John Pluthero, Group Managing Director UK and Chairman of the UK * Jim Marsh, UK CEO * Jeremy Jensen, UK CFO * Emanuele Angelidis, Bulldog CEO * Tony Rice, Group Managing Director Central and Finance Director (shareholder director) * George Battersby, Group HR Director (shareholder director) * Nick Cooper, Group General Counsel & Company Secretary (shareholder director) * Clare Waters, Director of External Affairs 2. Tony Rice biographyTony Rice was Chief Executive of Tunstall Holdings, the world leading TelecareGroup which was private equity owned by Hg Capital from 2000 to 2005, until itwas acquired by Bridgepoint in September 2005.Prior to joining Tunstall, Tony was Group Treasurer and then Group ManagingDirector Commercial Aircraft of British Aerospace plc and was also involved inthe financing and flotation of Orange.Tony has been a non-executive director and Chairman of the Audit Committee ofCable & Wireless since January 2003.3. About Cable & WirelessCable & Wireless is one of the world's leading international communicationscompanies. It operates through two stand alone business units - Internationaland UK.The International business unit operates integrated telecommunicationscompanies in 33 countries offering mobile, broadband, domestic andinternational fixed line services to residential and business customers, withprincipal operations in the Caribbean, Panama, Macau, Channel Islands andMonaco.The UK business unit provides enterprise and carrier solutions to the largestusers of telecoms services across the UK, US, continental Europe and Asia, andconsumer and small business broadband services in the UK through Bulldog.For more information about Cable & Wireless, go to www.cw.com .4. For further information:Clare Waters Director of External Affairs +44 (0)20 7315 4088 Ashley Rayfield Investor Relations Director +44 (0)20 7315 4460 Antonia Graham Head of Corporate and UK PR +44 (0) 7803 724 111 Press Office Cable & Wireless +44 (0)1344 818 888 Rollo Head Finsbury +44 (0)20 7251 3801 James Wyatt-Tilby Finsbury +44 (0)20 7251 3801 ENDCable & Wireless PLCRelated Shares:
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