Word: elektrim
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...reference not only to Barbara Lundberg's physical stature (5 ft. 10 in.) and no-nonsense New England manner but also to an audacious operating style that has in the past 10 years made her one of Warsaw's most influential executives. As CEO of Elektrim S.A., one of Poland's biggest and oldest communist-era companies, Lundberg, 47, admits that she attracts attention. "I think people find it amusing that a woman is president," she says. In her case they also find it daunting. Late last year the conglomerate was on the verge of insolvency; today, after Lundberg...
Lundberg was brought in as Elektrim CEO in February 1999 by institutional investors who had grown impatient with the previous management. The company had grown too quickly in the 1990s, says Lundberg, with interests in everything from chicken farms to electronic-cable manufacturing. Then reports leaked that the management had granted an option to an outside company for a 5% stake in Elektrim's most valuable asset, the wireless firm Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa, or PTC. Major Western shareholders swooped in. Lundberg sold off interests in nearly 80 companies, slashing staff levels from 30,000 to 15,000 by last December...
...former venture capitalist then refocused the company on telecommunications with acquisitions worth more than $1 billion. Today Elektrim boasts more than 2.5 million subscribers through its voice, video, mobile and fixed-line telephone networks. Early last year Elektrim clashed with the German giant Deutsche Telekom over a controlling interest in wireless company PTC. Lundberg has apparently prevailed, but a lawsuit launched by Deutsche Telekom in Polish courts blocked further investments and forced her to take out a loan that increased PTC's debt load 55%. It took a last-minute $1.2 billion sale to Vivendi of a 49% share...
...Kidder Peabody in New York City introduced a level of managerial and financial expertise that did not exist in Poland 10 years ago. "She brought a completely new quality to our business," says Bochniarz. Her non-Polish background also helped when it came to making tough decisions at Elektrim...
...that she has lost her ability to surprise. Lundberg recently presided at a ceremony at one of Elektrim's power plants where, according to Polish tradition, she smashed a bottle of champagne on a new boiler and became its official guardian. "I am the first godmother of a boiler in Poland!" she says with a grin. For most Poles, Lundberg continues to shatter all molds...