Melly to stand down as chief executive of WorldCom

The chief executive of MCI WorldCom Ireland, Mr Sean Melly, is to resign his position at the end of May. Mr Melly, a founder of TCL Telecom in 1994, said he would be pursuing his other interests in telecoms and software.

TCL Telecom was acquired by MCI WorldCom in 1997. No figures were disclosed but it is understood that WorldCom - as it was then - paid £20 million to acquire the 70 per cent interest in TCL that it did not already own. Mr Melly owned 40 per cent of the company, netting him more than £11 million.

Mr Melly agreed to stay on as chief executive but it is understood he was not tied into a contract. He said yesterday that he been asked to integrate the TCL business with WorldCom and this had now been done.

In a statement yesterday, MCI WorldCom said Mr Melly was one of the leading Irish telecommunications entrepreneurs, "playing an important role in the early introduction of telecommunications liberalisation in Ireland and helping to form Ireland's telecommunications policy".

He will be succeeded by Mr David Hughes, previously the chief operating officer of MCI WorldCom in Ireland.

Mr Hughes, who joined MCI WorldCom in March 1996 as financial controller, has worked in the telecommunications industry in both Britain and Ireland.[ QL]

Mr Melly will now pursue his private investments, and in doing so has agreed to remain available to provide "strategic counsel" to MCI WorldCom in Ireland until the end of 1999.

Mr Melly, who spent nine years in London and the US working in corporate finance, said yesterday that he would be concentrating on his telecommunications investments in central Europe. He is involved in a number of start-up telecoms companies in the Czech Republic and elsewhere.

Mr Melly is also a substantial shareholder in and a director of EMG, a software training company with offices in Dublin and Boston, which employs 120 people.

He is also a shareholder in a company called e-Ware, formed by five former employees of Point Information Systems. It is developing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.

Mr Melly said MCI WorldCom, which has more than 2,500 customers in Ireland, including a number of US multinationals, was now well-established in its target markets (it concentrates on the corporate sector) and has a full portfolio of voice, data and Internet products.

Mr Melly said the company was growing quickly and was winning a lot of business. The parent company does not break down figures for its Irish subsidiary, but Mr Melly has previously said the company's annual turnover should reach £100 million by 2003.