The old new guy

Edward Mueller seemed to be having a good time during the conference call yesterday in which he was introduced as the new chief executive officer of Qwest Communications. He joked around a bit. And with his predecessor, Dick Notebaert, he exuded the kind of casual rapport shared among old friends. (The two have plenty in common, after all, with “Qwest CEO” and “Ameritech CEO” on both of their resumes.)

It was only a month ago that another one-time resident of Qwest’s corner office, Joe Nacchio, was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay some $70 million for crimes he committed on the job. And while part of Notebaert’s work was to undo what Nacchio had done, much of Mueller’s work will be to keep doing what Notebaert did. The new CEO said as much yesterday, promising to keep aloft the same twin torches of customer service and fiscal discipline that are Notebaert’s legacy.

As a longtime Bell-head who learned new tricks at retailer Williams-Sonoma, Mueller believes he’s a good choice to lead Qwest’s own Bell-heads from what he called the “old world” of telecom to the new one. But with no pressing imperative to invest in terrestrial video networks, he also implied that he’s willing to let AT&T and Verizon Communications take the lead on that journey.

E-mail me at ed.gubbins@penton.com.