Hawaiian Telcom CEO Mike Ruley Ousted

“Mike Ruley, President of Hawaiian Telcom just got FIRED!” So says former Hawaiian Telcom product manager and renowned technology guru Burt Lum, who again has used Twitter to break big news.

Hawaiian Telcom has made drastic personnel changes in recent weeks, firing dozens of managers and losing other employees to not-very-coincidental resignations… including former spokesman Ron Mizutani. The company is struggling to stem the ongoing losses that it has seen since its takeover by private equity firm The Carlyle Group.

Ruley was hired in October 2004, long before the Carlyle Group’s acquisition of Hawaiian Telcom was approved in March 2005. He was recruited away from his job as CEO of NextiraOne (now Black Box), a B2B telecom company that was also owned by a private equity firm. Prior to that, he was head of sales for XO Communications.

Despite Hawaiian Telcom’s financial woes, it spared no expense in luring Ruley from Houston, paying $1.9 million (including $254,000 in moving expenses and $750,000 in bonuses) in 2005.

UPDATE: Ruley’s ouster is confirmed in a press release from Hawaiian Telcom announcing that Stephen F. Cooper is the new CEO. He’s described as a “turnaround industry pioneer.”