Moffat leaves New Edge

With the company he founded safely ensconced inside EarthLink, telecom industry veteran Dan Moffat is taking some time off to ponder his next opportunity. Moffat announced today that he is leaving New Edge Networks and will be taking some personal time to travel.

The decision was made within the last week, Moffat said in an interview, and comes at a time when New Edge is well positioned, since EarthLink acquired it last April.

“The company is well positioned as part of EarthLink in terms of the networking opportunity so that burden is gone in terms of me thinking I have to stay around to keep things going,” he said. “I’ve spent the last seven years with two weeks of vacation. So I want to relax and think about what I’m going to do next.”

Moffat will be taking some time off to prepare for an IronMan competition in November before traveling to Fiji on vacation. He then expects to return to the networking industry to pursue other opportunities to run small, privately funded businesses.

“This is an opportunity to take a break and do some other things,” he said. “I am very interested in how IT impacts businesses, and I’m very interested in the fact that everybody now needs a network with IT. Cheaper intelligence buried deeper in business means more networking, and that’s in every business. I’d like to take a look at how that impacts different vertical industries. So whatever I get involved with in the future will have something to do with that.

“More than that I want to take time off,” he said. “When I come back, I’ll be more involved with a smaller private company. If I never hear the words ‘Sarbanes-Oxley’ again, that’s fine.”

Linda Beck, executive vice president and general manager of business solutions for EarthLink, will serve as interim leader of New Edge while EarthLink seeks a permanent successor, the company said.

Moffat has been known for his iconoclastic style of management, which included requiring executives--himself included--to work out of office cubes similar to those of other workers. New Edge operated out of a Vancouver, Wash., office that was a converted warehouse and took pride in the employee camaraderie sparked by cube decorating contests and other company-wide events. The company adopted the pirate flag as its corporate symbol, reflecting its differing style of approach.

As a telecom company, New Edge distinguished itself by building out a national broadband footprint and its own internally developed automated system for rapidly turn up of far-flung customer facilities, along with a retail broadband initiative. The decision to sell to EarthLink was made in recognition of the need for more capital resources for sales and marketing of New Edge capabilities, Moffat said at the time.

“Dan led New Edge Networks to remarkable growth through one of the toughest economic and telecommunications industry downturns in recent history,” said Bill Heys, president of EarthLink's value and small to medium enterprises business unit, in a prepared statement. “He leaves a strong foundation for new revenue growth. Today, New Edge Networks has a strong team, unique national network called BigFoot, proprietary systems, and know-how for building and managing multi-location business networks. New Edge Networks is an important part of EarthLink's focus on growth as a total communications provider.”

Not surprisingly, Moffat said what he’ll miss most is the team of people he assembled at New Edge.

“What I’ll miss most is working with the team that we’ve created over the years, a group of folks who shared the vision, for whom the pirate flag means something,” he said.

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