New Qwest CEO vows to stay course, be nimble

On a conference call this morning, Qwest Communications’ new chief executive officer Edward Mueller didn’t give anyone much reason to expect radical changes at Qwest any time soon. He praised the efforts of current CEO Richard Notebaert in making Qwest a more financially disciplined and customer-service-oriented operation and said his own philosophies were closely aligned with those of Notebaert, who recommended him for the job.

“Going forward, it’s business as usual as we know it today,” Mueller said. “I believe Dick [Notebaert] and I are lined up on how to move forward.”

When asked whether Mueller might consider a new video strategy for Qwest, such as those adopted by AT&T and Verizon Communications, he said, “I frankly, at this point, like our video strategy. I really look at what the customer wants, not the technology that delivers it.”

“Regarding [mergers and acquisitions], I have no plans,” he said in response to a question on that subject. “I didn’t come in here with a big M&A list. We’ll have to wait and see.”

In response to a separate question about the regulatory landscape, Mueller pointed out that regulators are more clearly open to major telecom mergers than they were when he last worked in the telecom.

“But that’s not high on my scheme of things to do right now,” he said, referring to large mergers. “I like Qwest’s nimbleness.”

The importance of being nimble was a lesson he learned at Williams-Sonoma, where “there are no recurring revenues,” he said. “That’s a great lesson for those of us transitioing from the old telecom world to the new one. You’d better be quick and nimble.”

Qwest will pay Mueller an annual salary of $1.2 million with a target bonus of twice that. For 2007, he will receive a guaranteed annual bonus of at least $947,000.