By Jo Best, 3 March 2004 11:15
NEWS Tiscali has got itself a new head honcho in the shape of Ruud Huisman, former CEO of the ISP's Benelux and Scandinavian operations for two years, replacing co-founder Renato Soru, it was announced on Tuesday.
Soru isn't letting go of the reins just yet and will take up a new role as executive chairman of Europe's third largest ISP's supervisory board. The new appointment will be proposed at Tiscali's general meeting of shareholders in April, with Huisman acting as managing director and Soru keeping the board of directors' president's chair warm until then.
Soru himself picked the Dutchman as his successor and the appointment has been unanimously approved by the board of directors. Huisman certainly comes with a glowing recommendation from his predecessor. Presenting the man stepping into his shoes yesterday, Soru said: "Ruud Huisman is excellent, and he has been great to us so far. I am very confident and happy to leave him in charge of the company... We opted for an internal solution in order to guarantee the growth this company calls for."
Huisman cut his teeth with Tiscali when he worked as CFO for a Dutch ISP, World Online, which was acquired by Tiscali in 2000 for around 4.5bn, after which he moved to head up the Tiscali's operations in northern Europe.
Huisman is expected to be concentrating his efforts on the ISP's core markets in Europe and attempting to break down some of the regulatory barriers it sees as favouring incumbents over independents.
Soru too has some big plans in the pipeline. He's stepping down to run for political office in Sardinia's local elections.
It's not the only change afoot at the Italian ISP. Tiscali will be forming a new company to handle all of its Italian operations, with Sergio Callini at its head.
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