Hawaiian Telcom taps Barber to be next president and CEO

Hawaiian Telcom has named Scott Barber, who currently serves as the telco's COO, as its new president and CEO, taking over the reins from Eric Yeaman, who is leaving the company.

Scott Barber, Hawaiian Telcom

Barber (Source: Hawaiian Telcom)

Yeaman, who will remain as a member of Hawaiian Telcom's board, is stepping down to become president and COO of First Hawaiian Bank, Hawaii's largest bank.

Barber, who will also serve on the company's board of directors, came to Hawaiian Telcom in January 2013.

Before arriving at Hawaiian Telcom, Barber served as the COO of SureWest Communications, which was acquired by was acquired by Consolidated Communications.

A 33-year telecom industry veteran, Barber got his start as a construction lineworker 33 years ago at Kerman Telephone Company. In 1994, he joined SureWest where over the course of his 20-year career led operational efforts that mirror Hawaiian Telcom's expansion of IPTV over fiber and copper facilities; next generation voice, data and managed services for business; and wireless data backhaul.

While Yeaman is stepping down from the Hawaiian Telcom, it's hard to overlook the contributions he made to the company.

Over the course of his seven-year tenure with the telco, he helped lead it out of Chapter 11 protection and its ongoing migration into an IP-based broadband company, including the launch of Hawaiian Telcom TV, 1 Gbps FTTH service, Ethernet-based wireless backhaul, and cloud-based services. 

Barber's tenure will be defined on driving success with new residential services such as its 1 Gbps FTTH service and IPTV.

Rolling out FTTH and IPTV have been two of Hawaiian Telcom's key service initiatives for its residential service arm. As of the end of the first quarter, the service provider had a total of 29,700 subscribers. About 57 percent of the 166,000 households that were passed with its IPTV service are now capable of using fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology. 

For more:
- see the release

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