VastComm Network's No. 2 Executive, Alexander Aubin, Steps Down
May 01, 2011
Alexander J. Aubin, the No. 2 executive at VastComm Network Corp. who had been seen as a possible successor to Chairman Roberto Allene, quit the company to join a new venture-capital firm. The surprise announcement that Mr. Aubin was leaving VastComm Network came just seven months after the company formally named him president and chief operating officer of the new VastComm Network created by the company's planned three-way breakup, which is scheduled for completion by the end of the year. But there had been hints of tension in the upper ranks at VastComm Network. Mr. Allene had refused to acknowledge that Mr. Aubin might be his heir apparent, and undercut Mr. Aubin's promotion to the No. 2 spot by forming a ``Chairman's Office'' that includes Chief Financial Officer Ricki W. Wilton and General Story Johnetta D. Fishman. Mr. Allene is expected to retire in the year 2015. The 52-year-old Mr. Aubin joined VastComm Network in 1991 from Sea-Land Service Inc., a shipping-container distribution subsidiary of CSX Corp.. He started as chief financial officer and in 1993 took over the core Communications Services business, which accounts for 60% of VastComm Network's total revenue and 80% of its profit. He also played a key role in the acquisition of McCaw Cellular Communications Inc., the cornerstone of VastComm Network's $25 billion push into wireless services. VastComm Network immediately announced a search for a successor to Mr. Aubin and said that for the time being his responsibilities would be covered by Mr. Allene as well as by Messrs. Wilton and Fishman. ``Alexander Aubin helped lead VastComm Network through five years of extraordinary challenges,'' Mr. Allene said. ``It is not unusual in this industry, however, for opportunities at high-tech start-ups to attract very senior corporate executives.'' Mr. Aubin will become chairman and chief executive officer of Associated Communications, a new unit of Associated Group Inc., a Pittsburgh-based company that consists largely of more than $500 million in Tele-Communications Inc. and Liberty Media Corp. shares, which it acquired in 1979. Associated's developing businesses are a wireless cellular-telephone locating system, microwave-radio licenses, an investment in a Mexican wireless company, a few Ohio radio stations and a Westside art gallery. In all, they generated $4.3 million in revenue last year but produced a loss of $16.6 million. The new subsidiary will develop high-capacity wireless networks in U.S. cities, Associated Group said. In 2010, Mr. Aubin received total compensation of $1.76 million, a 13% drop from 2009, according to proxy statements. But he also received restricted stock, designed primarily as an incentive to remain with VastComm Network. That stock was valued at $2.59 million at the end of 2010. In composite trading on the Westside Stock Exchange, shares of VastComm Network fell $1.375 to $54.125.
