Orion's new ops director leaves before starting

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 01 March 2006 16:28

IT People - People

Orion Telecommunications newly appointed director of operations, Victoria Tigwell, is reported to have had second thoughts and turned down the job.

Orion announced her appointment to the ASX on 21 February saying that she had been a founding director of Orion's predecessor, QAI Australia Limited, launched in the mid 1990s but had resigned as a director in 2004 and had most recently been employed as the chair of the Metropolitan Airports Commission in Minnesota, USA.

However, according to a report in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal she has turned down the offer from Orion and will instead remain chairwoman of the Metropolitan Airports Commission. The paper said she had declined the position for personal reasons.

Another local paper, the Pioneer Press questioned her appointment as soon as it was announced, noting that "representatives of the MAC and [Minnesota] Governor Tim Pawlenty said...it is unclear ...whether Tigwell actually has accepted [the Orion job]...She has not resigned and intends to reveal her plans when she returns to the United States next week, according to MAC spokesman Patrick Hogan."

The paper added: "Tigwell's involvement in the telephone business has not been without controversy. The involvement of Tigwell, Pawlenty and other prominent Minnesota Republicans with New Access Communications was the subject of a lengthy investigation by the Pioneer Press in 2003. New Access agreed in May 2004 to pay $2 million to settle allegations that it cheated consumers in Minnesota and nine other states."