Caio says 'ciao' to a telecoms fortune

Well-respected and liked by his peers in the industry, the new Cable & Wireless chief executive Francesco Caio, 45, has enjoyed a long and varied career in the telecoms and technology world.

He was the first chief executive of Omnitel, the Italian mobile phone business bought by Mannesmann and which is now part of Vodafone. From there he enjoyed a three-year stint as chief executive of Merloni Elettrodomestici – the household appliances company behind the Indesit and Ariston brands.

However, it hasn't all been plain sailing. Mr Caio was ousted as chief executive of Olivetti in 1996 – the electronics company where he first began his career – after just two months in the top job. His resignation came after a power struggle with major shareholder and former chairman Carlo de Benedetti.

Mr Caio has an electronic engineering degree from the Politecnico di Milano and an MBA from INSEAD and is a board member of both Motorola and Merloni. He is married with two children.

Ironically, he is joining Cable & Wireless from Netscalibur – the business telecoms and internet services provider he founded and a company that prided itself on not owning a telecoms network.