After almost 12 years at the head of the company, Naji Khoury ends his role as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Liberty Puerto Rico, confirmed the parent company Liberty Latin America (LLA). In turn, the company announced that Eduardo Díaz Corona will succeed him as general manager of Liberty Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
“Naji has led the creation of a great business and culture in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. He has helped set the stage for a new phase of growth, which Eduardo will now help accelerate and take our operations to an even higher level,” Balan Nair, CEO of LLA, said in writing.
It was not specified when Khoury would end his duties.
Khoury started at Liberty in 2010, when the executive came in to oversee the merger with local internet provider OneLink Communications. In 2012, he was promoted to the role of president.
Since then, he has led the expansion phases of the company, which has evolved from offering only a pay television and fixed internet service to providing the full range of telecommunications services for consumers, companies, government, and institutions.
Prior to his work at Liberty, Khoury was a senior executive at local carrier Centennial, which was later acquired by AT&T.
In total, Khoury has more than 30 years of experience as an executive in the telecommunications industry in Puerto Rico. Aside from his contributions to the company’s growth in Puerto Rico, under Khoury’s leadership, Liberty developed the Liberty Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm that, since 2017, has donated more than $7 million to almost 90 nonprofit organizations in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Last August, Liberty reported that the company was continuing its capital improvement program in both its mobile and fixed networks and that it expected to add about 300 people to its workforce on the island.
As for Díaz Corona, he also has decades of experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to this appointment, he was president of TracFone Wireless, which was acquired by Verizon in 2021.
In statements sent to the press, the new executive praised Khoury’s work, stating that “an incredible foundation has been built and I know we can take advantage of it to continue growing the business by providing connectivity to more people in more places through our markets.”
“Our customers are the most important part of our business and Eduardo (Díaz Corona) will bring his deep operations experience to improve the experience and value for customers in the market. We look to a bright future for our business in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands,” added CEO Nair.
LLA did not share the reasons for Khoury’s departure. However, the change of command occurs as Liberty Puerto Rico seeks to finalize the acquisition of spectrum and some 120,000 prepaid accounts from DISH Network in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands for approximately $256 million.
The leadership transition also coincides with a bumpy process of migrating customer accounts and systems inherited from AT&T to Liberty Puerto Rico platforms. This is the final step after the purchase of the AT&T operation, a transaction that was completed in November 2020 for $1.95 billion.
As reported by this medium, between September and November 2023, the migration triggered service interruptions in an unspecified number of clients, which in extreme cases lasted for days and even weeks.
The problems in the migration process of AT&T customers to Liberty began to have an impact on the company’s financial results, as reflected in LLA’s most recent report to its investors, corresponding to the quarter from July to September 2023.
Specifically, Liberty reported that “residential mobile revenue was 10% less, compared to the same period last year.” The loss of 24,500 mobile subscribers as of September 30 was also reported when compared to the total reported as of June 30, 2023.
In the aforementioned report, it is established that Liberty would complete the migration process in April 2024.