The man or woman who takes over from retiring Manx Telecom chief executive Mike Dee must be ‘personable’ and understand the needs of island customers.
That’s the view of Mr Dee who is leaving the hot seat later this year after a glittering 31 year career with MT.
Mr Dee stresses it will be up to the board of directors to pick his successor.
He said: ‘It will be a board selection but an attribute I would look for would be that it is someone who is personable.
‘He or she has to be able to deal with the local customers, with the regulator, with everrybody on the island. But they will also have to be able to go out and sit in front of some of the big investors and have that knowledge and personality to give them confidence that their money is safe.’
Mr Dee then gives an example from his own experience.
‘I’ve had an 80 -year old lady come to my office to talk to me about her broadband service and then the next week I was down in London sitting in a top fund manager’s office discussing performance and outlook etc.
‘Both were equally of importance to me. That 80-year -old lady, the island customer, is as important as that investor in my opinion.’
Mr Dee said: ‘It’s over 31 years that I’ve been here and I guess when I look at it it’s quite sad really because in all that time I’ve never missed a board meeting
‘I’m coming up to 60 this year although I still feel like I’m 20.
‘I’ve discussed it a lot with the family and the view is that as long as I’m doing something ‘‘that’s fine as long as you are not under our feet’’.
‘So I’m not looking to take on another full time role but I’ve an open mind as to what I may do. It may be something very different, it might involve sport, I might be involved with anything.
‘Because we are a public company we could not start looking [for a new chief] until an announcement was made to the market. So that’s why there is not a firm date. But it is very much towards the end of the year’.
Mr Dee spoke to Business News in his office at Manx Telecom headquarters on Isle of Man Business Park shortly after a phone conversation with MT chairman Kevin Walsh.
‘We were talking about how we progress towards looking for a replacement.
‘It’s deemed to be price sensitive. That’s why it had to be announced officially to the market before looking for someone else to take the hot seat.
‘I spoke to the chairman towards the end of last year and it was agreed to put the announcement out at the same time as the pre-close announcement was made’.
But Mr Dee promised: ‘I’m not rushing out the door, it’s very much working in collaboration with the chairman and the rest of the board in terms of timing and how we do it.
‘So no exact date as been set.’
Asked about memories and highlights Mr Dee said the ‘excitement of the float’ had to be up there with the best. This was a year ago when Manx Telecom went public and joined the junior arm of the London Stock Exchange called AIM.
AIM is acknowledged as the international market for smaller growing companies.
‘I think the people I’ve met, working for us, along with the suppliers and customers, have been great and that’s what I’ll miss.’
‘It’s been a long time.’
Mr Dee will have been chief executive officer for four years next month (April) ‘and the other 27 years effectively as finance director.
‘And I’m on my fourth regulator [Carmel Mclaughlin at the Communications Commission.]
‘My successor will see the next big challenge and there is no doubt this industry moves so quick and its probably a good time to have someone [new] in with a different outlook. Of course it is essential the new person recognises the Isle of Man for what it is.
‘I think this is recognised by the board. You need somebody that can work with government and with the Isle of Man community and be able to think with the Isle of Man plc hat on.’
Mr Dee said the person who takes over from him could be from the island or off it.
‘It is a complex industry moving forward very quickly and I think it may be that there may be someone out there who can bring something different and to the benefit of the island.
‘But it won’t be my choice’.
But Mr Dee promised that he would do all he could to ‘help with the transition. I will do my upmost to ensure a smooth transition.’
Business News broke the news of Mr Dee’s impending retirement last week. He will leave some time during the second half of the year.
Mr Dee, who has lost little of his Gloucestershire accent, said the chief executive would need to always be on top of things. He said the job is 24/7.
‘You are never away from it [the job]. If I walk into the pub on a Friday night and the mobile network is down they will tell me. And in fact what we have is a system where if there is any network outage of any sort I will get an alert. So that could be 6pm on a Friday night or 4am in the morning.
‘That’s always important.’
Mr Dee is married to Carol and they have two daughters Claudia, 17, and Reagan, 20.
Reagan represented the island in the women’s high jump at the Commonwealth Games.
Mr Dee says he has no intention of leaving the island.
A keen rugby fan Mr Dee said although no date has firmly been set for leaving he does have a firm note in his diary for later this year.
The Rugby World Cup takes place in September and Mr Dee said he has a box booked at Gloucester for the Scotland versus Japan game.‘Sixteen of us will be having a little celebration then.’