iiNet keeps Buckingham as CEO
iiNet's board has opted to keep the company's former chief financial officer David Buckingham in the top job as CEO after almost eight months of searching for a replacement for the company's founder, Michael Malone.
Malone announced he would leave the company late last year, after an extended four-month holiday from the internet service provider business he started 20 years ago.
During that time, Buckingham, the company's CFO, took the reins of the telco, and remained acting CEO after Malone announced his intentions to leave the company.
At the time, iiNet chairman Michael Smith said that the board would conduct a global search for Malone's replacement, but hinted that Buckingham would be the strongest contender for the top job.
"We've really enjoyed David's leadership, and we've been checking in Australia and internationally, the prospect of a new CEO, but it'd need to be an extraordinary person to beat David into this job," he said in March.
Today, the company announced to the Australian Stock Exchange that Buckingham will now be the CEO of iiNet, effective immediately.
"Despite strong competition from applicants around the world, David proved an obvious choice as the person to lead iiNet now and into the future," Smith said.
"David has made the role his own over the past nine months, delivering the company's strongest ever results, market-leading customer service, and organic growth."
Smith said that Buckingham was the ideal choice to lead the company through its growth plan for the next five years to improve market share, profitability, and customer service.
The company stated it used recruitment consultancy firm Leadership and Succession to advise on replacing Malone.
It is the second top executive job to be announced by the company today, after ZDNet first reported that iiNet had found a replacement for former CTO John Lindsay in former Maxis COO Mark Dioguardi.
Since his departure Malone has sold off a number of his shares in the company he founded 20 years ago, now owning less than 5 percent of the company.
No announcement has been made on who will replace Buckingham as CFO of iiNet.