Verizon Exec Critical Of MCI Agents Gets Reassigned

A Verizon Communications executive who criticized the performance of MCI reseller agents has been reassigned.

Kathy Koelle, senior vice president for business solutions sales and marketing at Verizon, said in a CRN story last week that many MCI agents brought on board with the recently completed merger of Verizon and MCI were essentially idle when it came to closing sales. She said those agents were being shed from Verizon's partner rolls.

On Monday, an MCI reseller agent who requested anonymity said Koelle had been "completely removed from the channel" and replaced by Michael Hassett, senior vice president of voice and bundled solutions at New York-based Verizon.

A Verizon spokesman on Tuesday said Koelle has been reassigned to another sales and marketing post and given a new title, senior vice president and general manager of Verizon's West Coast region. Koelle's transfer was a strategic reassignment and not a disciplinary action resulting from her comments about former MCI agents, he said. Hassett inherits Koelle's former position, the spokesman said.

Verizon last Thursday alerted its legacy agents and former MCI agents that many would be dropped from its partner ranks. They were notified in two conference calls: one with Verizon agents, and another with former MCI agents, Koelle said. Verizon is dismissing some of its own idle agents as well, she said.

The MCI reseller agent called the conference call "disastrous" and said Verizon is now "scrambling internally to put the pieces together." More changes from the carrier could arrive as soon as next week, the agent said.

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