Qwest promotes Richards to COO

Qwest Communications has promoted Tom Richards from executive vice president of its Business Markets Group to chief operating officer of the company, responsible for the daily operations of five divisions. Richards has been at Qwest since 2005 and also had previously worked at former Bell companies Ameritech and Bell Atlantic, and vendor Clear Communications.

Qwest CEO Edward Mueller has not made many management changes since taking over the helm at Qwest about one year ago, but this looks to be a positive move, putting an executive with big telco experience in a position to take some daily oversight responsibility that might have been handled by Mueller or other executives up to this point.

For more:
- see this Associated Press item at CNN Money

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Qwest said in June it sees struggles ahead. Qwest report
Qwest CFO John Richardson announced his departure earlier this year. Qwest report