Country Manager of LIME in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Leslie Jack, has become the first major casualty of Cable and Wireless Communications’ US$1.85 billon acquisition of Columbus International Inc., which was finalised last week.
Jack, who took up the top post in October 2011, will spend his last day on the job on Friday, 15 years after he joined the company.
“Basically it’s the merger — restructuring around the merger. The business is looking to take the leadership of the organisation in a different direction. That’s it,” he told I-Witness News on Thursday.
“I am leaving on a good note, and I am leaving amicably. In addition to that I am leaving on a winning note, because where we are today versus when we just started, LIME is significantly better off,” he said.
Jack said he took over the reins at a time when the company was “under tremendous pressure”.
“So, clearly, a couple of things were needed. We needed a rounded and fairly sound team,” he told I-Witness News.
“Even back then I identified a plan around growing the business and that’s the plan we stuck to over the last two and a half to three years and we have been executing with great success. So that for me is one of the primary achievements.
“But for me what is even more is the growth of the colleagues — the level of growth among the colleagues,” he said.
“It was tough in terms of the transformation that had to be made with the colleagues but with the help of the leadership team, the senior leadership locally, we were able to guide the colleagues in a particular direction to help to transform the culture of the business and they are better off today as a result of that,” he said.
Jack told I-Witness News that he is also satisfied that he has repositioned LIME as the market leader in telecommunications.
He said that when he became general manager in 2011 the “pundits” did she the company as the market leader, but do so now.
And as he considers the future, Jack told I-Witness News, “There are quite a few projects that I am looking into.
“I can’t say which ones at this particular time, but, clearly, I am exploring a couple projects at this particular time,” he said.
Too bad we and our neighbours are so impotent and powerless (except to victimize our own people) that we couldn’t stop this merger, as countries like America, Canada, and European countries have always managed to do when the interests of their people are threatened by monopoly capitalism. Was some countries simply bought off?