Exetel appoints co-founder to CEO

Internet service provider Exetel has appointed co-founder and chief engineer Steve Waddington as chief executive officer of the company, following John Linton's passing from a stroke last month.

Waddington had worked with Linton for the past 16 years and helped establish Exetel as a service provider in 2003.

Exetel announced Waddington’s promotion in its monthly newsletter and stated that it was “looking forward to Steve’s experience in leading Exetel through the volatile ISP industry”.

It is unclear whether Waddington’s appointment forms part of the “strategic plan” Linton’s son James said had been in place at the time of the founder’s death.

The company could not be reached for comment at time of writing.

It said in the newsletter that the company planned a significant upgrade of its network backbone in eastern states from gigabit speeds to a 10 Gbps backbone with a new provider.