SureWest's (Nasdaq: SURW) Chief Operating Officer Fred Arcuri is going to retire from the service provider after a 36-year career that he began as a telephone lineman for SureWest, which was then known as Roseville Telephone Company.
Taking over the COO spot from Arcuri will be Scott Barber, SureWest's current VP of operations, beginning on April 15.
After spending 10 years as a telephone lineman, SureWest said Arcuri "decided to move indoors after climbing telephone poles every day for 10 years." Prior to becoming COO, he served in various executive and administrative positions including traffic engineer and a data engineer, progressing from supervisor to manager before becoming director of product services and marketing.
Among his many accomplishments during his tenure was helping SureWest transition from being just a local telephone voice provider in Roseville, Calif. to a diversified triple-play service provider serving both Northern California and the Kansas City regions.
Key elements of its triple-play business transformation were the launch of its broadband business and expanding its network and service reach outside of Roseville via its acquisition of the former Fiber to the Home provider WINfirst in 2002. Arcuri helped then guide the service provider's cable license negotiations with municipalities to deliver video.
Later in 2008, Arcuri drove the research behind SureWest's acquisition of Everest Broadband Networks, a move that gave it presence in the Kansas City market.
Following last year's retirement of 35-year company veteran CTO Bill Demuth, Arcuri is the second major executive to retire from SureWest after a long tenure with the service provider.
For more:
- see the release
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