ITWire

Before the merger was announced, Quigley had been flagged by Alcatel's soon-to-retire CEO Serge Tchuruk as his successor and was widely believed to have been extremely unhappy at being passed over in favour of Russo, who will move to Paris to head the merged entity.

Quigley's new role in the merged company will be that of president, science technology and strategy where he will "devote his attention to assuring that strategic investments align with evolving market opportunities," Alcatel said in a statement.

An Alcatel spokeswoman told Light Reading that he had decided to spend more time with his family, "of whom he hasn't seen much lately as he has been flying constantly between Dallas."

Details of his change of role were buried at the bottom of a lengthy statement by the two companies announcing progress in the merger and a number of additional appointments. A replacement COO was not named.

The two companies say they are on track to complete the merger by the end of calendar 2006, and have achieved a number of significant milestones, including satisfying some regulatory conditions to the proposed merger.

"The business model and the associated organisation of the combined company are now defined and will be implemented immediately upon closing," the company said.

The overall business will be segmented in business groups structured along the global requirements of three market - carrier, enterprise and service. A decentralised regional organisation will provide local support to customers.

The enterprise business group will be headed by Hubert de Pesquidoux and the service business group by John Meyer. The company will have four geographic regions: Europe and North, headed by Vince Molinaro; Europe and South, headed by Olivier Picard; North America, headed by Cindy Christy; Asia-Pacific, headed by Frederic Rose.

Europe & North includes the UK, Nordic countries, Benelux, Germany, Russia and Eastern European countries. Europe & South includes France, Italy, Spain and other Southern European countries, Africa, Middle East, India and Latin America. North America includes the USA Canada and the Caribbean. Asia Pacific includes China, Northeast Asia, South East Asia and Australia.

The company will have a management committee headed by Russo and including Etienne Fouques, senior executive VP of the carrier group; Frank D'Amelio, senior executive VP integration and chief administrative officer; Jean-Pascal Beaufret, CFO; Claire Pedini, senior VP, human resources and communication; and Quigley.