It was an opportunity that Hawaiian Telcom Chief Executive Officer Eric Yeaman said was too good to pass up.
Yeaman, who steered the state’s largest telecommunications provider through bankruptcy and later was instrumental in the launch of Hawaiian Telcom TV, resigned Monday to become president and chief operating officer of First Hawaiian Bank.
Yeaman, 47, who will begin his new role Monday, will be replaced by Scott Barber, 54, currently chief operating officer at Hawaiian Telcom. Yeaman will remain at Hawaiian Telcom through Friday.
"I had a wonderful experience at Hawaiian Telcom," Yeaman said in a telephone interview. "We did a lot of great things there. But First Hawaiian Bank is a prestigious company, and it’s an exciting opportunity. It’s a much larger organization and a successful organization that anybody would want to be a part of. I truly looked at this as an opportunity to continue doing something significant for our community."
Bob Harrison, chairman, president and CEO of the bank, will relinquish his presidential title to make room for Yeaman. Harrison had served as president of First Hawaiian since 2009 and added the CEO title in 2012 when predecessor Don Horner retired. Harrison became chairman of the board of directors in mid-2014.
"In the past the bank has most often had a president separate from our CEO," Harrison, 54, said in a phone interview. "It really is part of our succession plan, and we’re looking for our next generation of leaders. I began talking to Eric many months ago — maybe mid-last year. We need more people on our senior team, and the opportunity to bring in someone like Eric who has the technology and business background was just too great an opportunity to pass up."
First Hawaiian Bank, which is the state’s largest bank with $18.7 billion in assets, has 2,200 employees. Hawaiian Telcom, which in 2014 had $390.7 million in revenue, has about 1,300 employees.
Yeaman earned $1.98 million in total compensation at Hawaiian Telcom in 2014.
Yeaman, who will join First Hawaiian’s board while remaining a director at Hawaiian Telcom, joined Hawaiian Telcom in May 2008 — seven months before the company filed for bankruptcy in December of that year. Under Yeaman’s leadership, Hawaiian Telcom rebounded from a $150 million loss in 2007 to profitability in 2010 when the company exited from Chapter 11 reorganization. He later oversaw the July 2011 launch of Hawaiian Telcom TV, which now serves 30,000 customers, or 7 to 8 percent of a marketplace that is dominated by Oceanic Time Warner. Yeaman’s growth strategy also included introducing up to 1-gigabit Internet speeds to residential customers.
"When I joined the company it was not yet in bankruptcy," Yeaman said. "The reorganization was clearly a major accomplishment. The other is really the transformation of the business from a phone company to a full-service technology company."
Harrison said he plans to take advantage of Yeaman’s technology skills.
"Really, banking today has a lot of technology embedded in it," Harrison said. "Technology is more and more important to run the bank, but it’s also important for our customers. Some of the things that First Hawaiian has done has made that technology very customer-focused, and Eric will be a big help."
Before joining Hawaiian Telcom, Yeaman held positions of chief operating officer of Hawaiian Electric Co.; chief financial officer of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., the parent of HECO; and chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Kamehameha Schools.
"I’ve worked at a number of large organizations around town —all very different in their industries," said Yeaman, who grew up in Kona. "When I went to Hawaiian Telcom, I didn’t have any telecom background. I had to use my leadership skills that I’ve transferred to different industries. My background is primarily financial in nature, and banking is a very financially driven business and something I’m very comfortable in."
Barber, who started at Hawaiian Telcom in January 2013, said he was surprised that the opportunity to lead the company came so soon.
"Every promotion I ever received, I’ve kept my head down working hard, and someone came over and said, ‘We’d like to give you more responsibility,’" Barber said in a phone interview. "I guess it’s always a surprise to get this kind of promotion. I’m grateful the board had confidence in me to take over the leadership of Hawaiian Telcom. We’d had a succession plan in place the past several years, and I understood I was on the CEO succession plan program. But this opportunity came up for Eric, and certainly I was surprised to hear about it and grateful the board had confidence in me."
Prior to joining Hawaiian Telcom, Barber served as chief operating officer of SureWest Communications, a publicly traded telecommunications company providing voice, video and data services in the Sacramento, Calif.; Kansas City, Kan.; and Missouri areas.
"We were very fortunate to recruit Scott almost three years ago, and we are very confident in his ability to lead Hawaiian Telcom to even greater success," Hawaiian Telcom Chairman Richard Jalkut said in a statement. "Scott’s passion for deploying advanced technology and networks in order to improve our customers’ experience is second to none in the industry. We look forward to more exciting customer offerings in the future as we continue to grow the company."
Barber earned $955,806 at Hawaiian Telcom in 2014.
Barber said his objective is to remain on the same growth path forged by Yeaman.
"We went from just a telephone company to Hawaii’s technology leader in just a short period of time," Barber said. "My challenge is to continue the momentum and to get market share in video and bandwidth on both the residential and business sides. My focus is to continue to grow the company and provide outstanding service to our customers."
Yeaman said he recommended Barber to succeed him.
"Scott is an industry veteran," Yeaman said. "He’s been in telecom for many years. He’s very capable. It was a board decision to appoint him, but I highly recommended him. Although he’s not from Hawaii, he has a nice way about him that fits quite well into the culture. He’s embraced the culture and the people."
