Capellas promises to improve ethics at WorldCom

The new chairman and chief executive of WorldCom, Michael Capellas, has promised to improve ethics at the scandal-plagued telecommunications company.

He also pledged to lead it out of bankruptcy without selling off huge chunks of assets.

Mr Capellas comes to WorldCom after wrestling with another knotty business challenge: serving as president of Hewlett-Packard after its £12.5 bn (€19.6) acquisition of Compaq. He had been Compaq's boss for nearly three years.

When he officially takes over at WorldCom on December 2, he will have to rebuild the company's image, reassure uneasy customers and 60,000 employees, and satisfy the creditors, court-appointed monitor and other parties associated with the biggest bankruptcy in US history.

"I'm actually pretty jazzed about this," Mr Capellas said at a news conference in New York.

"If there's one thing I can commit to you: I'll have some things to learn, but nobody else will ever work harder."

As CEO, Mr Capellas replaces John Sidgmore, who was named interim replacement in April for Bernard Ebbers, who used dozens of acquisitions to build WorldCom from a small phone company into a telecom giant.

As chairman, Mr Capellas takes over for Bert Roberts, who came to WorldCom through its 1997 takeover of long-distance carrier MCI.

Mr Capellas says he does not intend to replace the entire management team but will in some cases bring in "people I'm comfortable with and have a relationship with".

The changes at the top come as WorldCom is making a concerted effort to turn attention beyond its £6 bn (€9.4) accounting fraud, which has led to criminal charges against five former executives and federal investigations of the company.