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‘Execution’ the Key For Windstream CEO Tony Thomas

3 min read

Tony Thomas, who took over as CEO of Windstream Holdings Inc. of Little Rock in December, recently gave a round of interviews to local reporters about a month after the company’s shareholders approved measures to spin off a real estate investment trust.

The REIT, now known as Communications Sales & Leasing Inc., has been in the works since July and is seen as the first such trust dedicated to wireline assets. The spinoff is expected to be complete by the end of June.

“I feel like the leadership team is in place, we have a good set of assets, we have talented employees, and at this point it’s about execution: executing the REIT transaction and executing our operational plan for 2015,” Thomas said.

But Thomas acknowledged that the company had to work through “a lot of the logistics and issues” to build the transaction.

When asked if he expected other companies like Windstream to follow its lead in spinning off assets or to become clients of CS&L, Thomas laughed and said they were hoping for the latter.

“It’d be much more efficient for another company to partner with the REIT than attempt to form its own REIT given the effort to take place to do that,” Thomas said. “And you have to be of a certain size for it to be consequential enough. Windstream was about the perfect size in terms of being able to really create a meaningful-sized public company in the form of a REIT.”

Thomas said CS&L also had features that he thinks will put it ahead of any other future REIT spinoffs. He said the company is obviously a “first mover” and also benefits from the appointment of Kenny Gunderman, who is serving as its president and CEO. Thomas said Gunderman already has contacts in the telecommunications industry from his time at Stephens Inc. and that he can tap into that network “to showcase the capabilities of the REIT.”

Gunderman’s day-to-day work and goals are familiar to Thomas because he held the same position for several months. Thomas was the original pick to lead the REIT when it was announced, but was plucked to take the helm of Windstream upon the departure of Jeff Gardner in December.

The two roles are light years apart. For one, CS&L is expected to max out at about 25 employees in its early days — largely focusing on simply growing the REIT. At the mother ship, Thomas is in charge of 13,500 employees in varying roles.

Thomas said his main goal is to focus on providing a “world-class customer experience,” in addition to building out the company’s network and making sure it has the right network capabilities.

One of the first things Thomas did after taking over as CEO was arrange the company into three business units — consumer and small business, carrier business and enterprise — and choose his own executives over each division. Several of the leadership staff that now surrounds Thomas were with him in the old days at Alltel Corp., which spun off Windstream in 2005.

Looking ahead, Thomas declined to say whether to expect any acquisitions after the spinoff is complete.

“Acquisitions often pop up in untimely ways, or perhaps timely, and we’ll evaluate them as they arise,” Thomas said. “But initially it’s a very operational focus. Where I want myself and my leadership team focused is on delivering a world-class customer experience.”

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