Fired Nortel CEO finds work

Frank Dunn, the former chief executive officer of Nortel Networks who was fired amid a financial scandal, is now employed by Ontario consultancy QCL Growth Partners.

Dunn is listed among the firm’s seven consultants as its “business strategy advisor,” The Ottawa Business Journal reported today, though it’s unclear how long he has held that position. One QCL partner said Dunn had been employed there for more than 12 months.

A longtime veteran of Nortel, Dunn became the company’s chief financial officer in 1999 and its CEO in 2001. But he was fired in April 2004 along with several other top executives amid a costly financial scandal that required Nortel to repeatedly restate its earnings reports.

An independent investigation concluded that Dunn and other top executives at the time manipulated Nortel’s 2002 and 2003 earnings in order to trigger corporate bonuses.

In April, Dunn sued Nortel for wrongfully terminating him.

The biographical information on QCL’s Web site makes no mention of Nortel’s financial scandal or the circumstances under which Dunn left the company. It points out that Nortel’s revenues “increased ten-fold” during Dunn’s time there (he joined the company in 1976). And it lists his three “areas of expertise” as “organizational management, financial management and business strategy.”