ss:
This may be why he hasn’t returned to public company leadership:
“Why CEOs Fail” By David Landreth
“It was not that long since [Nacchio] had been triumphant, having orchestrated Qwest’s $58B acquisition of U.S. West. It was a hostile takeover, and during the negotiations Nacchio made a number of statements to the press painting U.S. West as a bureaucratic mess and describing its executives in colorfully negative terms. A Forbes article at the time describes how after the acquisition, he told U.S. West Wireless head Peter Mannetti that he had thirty minutes to change the U.S. West sign on his office building to Qwest if he wanted to keep his job. “
Apparently, he didn’t get that sign changed out fast enough!
This was also sent over to me tonight (it doesn't quite match his resume, but it is reasonably close on timing, and the LinkedIn appears to be correct). It does however make it clear it was US West as it says on his LinkedIn page:
Peter Mannetti
After Qwest Communications took over U S West Communications in June 2000, Peter Mannetti agreed to stay on as CEO of the wireless service unit for a year.
He had been with that division of U S West since its inception in the mid-1990s and was the first employee of U S West Wireless.
He notified Qwest management in February 2001 that he would stay until they found a replacement and left four months later.
"I have worked to build a Qwest wireless team, but it was time for them to make it their own company that they were comfortable with and part of the Qwest culture," Mannetti said.
Mannetti, 53, always wanted to get involved with a venture capital company, but he was looking for a very specific situation. That's when he ran into iSherpa. The small venture-capital firm only invests in wireless products and supporting technologies.
"I described what I wanted and it was exactly what they were doing," Mannetti said.
Partners in iSherpa, founded in 2000, have invested their own money and are in the process of securing a second round of funding.
Before signing onto any project, Mannetti likes to do some investigating. He grabbed a cubicle in the iSherpa office last summer and spent eight weeks getting to know employees and understanding the work. He later became managing partner.
For Mannetti, the experience combines two of his passions.
"I like to learn and I like to teach," he said. "When you have passion, that's what puts the fun in it."
From LinkedIn:
CEO
U S West Wireless
Telecommunications industry
January 1995 – January 2001 (6 years 1 month)
It sounds like he will be a great mentor to Laura. Or he could certainly step into her high heels.
“It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble. It’s the things we know that just ain’t so.” Henry Wheeler Shaw
