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3rd Quarter 2012
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7
When Barry Rowan talks business,
he talks about responsible value
creation
.
In conversation, you might hear him say
business serves society by creating opportunities for peo-
ple at the bo om of the pyramid. For him,
value
cannot
be divorced from
values
. e two are as closely entwined
as the why and the how that confront any decision-maker
in any business question.
“Work should provide an opportunity for people to
express their innate gi s and talents,” he says, a pronounce-
ment that can sound a li le old-fashioned in our cynical
age. But Rowan, who has been in the business world for
more than 30 years, with the titles CEO, CFO, and
Treasurer, has a track record in telecom and tech business-
es that proves he does not have his head in the clouds.
At his previous job, CFO of Nextel Partners, he arrived
when the company’s stock was trading for a low $7–$8 a
share, and set to work growing the valuation of the com-
pany. ree years later, in June 2006, the stock price was
up to $28.50 per share. He took his leave a er the com-
pany was sold to take a “purposeful pause” in his career,
though he continued to contribute his knowledge while
si ing on boards and giving back to the community. He
then joined Vonage Holdings Corp. in March 2010.
Rowan operates in a rapidly changing world from a
foundation of rock-solid principles. In a time when lack
of trust in business is widespread
ethics questions
having been raised over the actions of Apple (child
labor), BP (disregard for employees’ lives), Barclays Bank
(rate manipulation), Countrywide Finance (in uence
peddling), Morgan Stanley (a skewed earnings forecast
for Facebook), Monsanto (environmental damage), and
many other companies
his values-based leadership is
refreshing and his conversation provides perspective for
anyone searching for meaning in their work. But Rowan’s
not just a nice guy who makes character central to his
work, he loves business challenges and has an impressive
track record of growing and turning around companies.
In the crucible of business, he has arrived at a philosophy
that other CFOs should nd provocative
maybe even
worth emulating.
Importance of Performing
Profitably
Rowan, whose title is Executive Vice President, Chief
By Julie Barker
Photography by Ron Wyatt
Buildingon
Values
onage, a leading
provider of voice
over internet pro-
tocol (VoIP) phone service,
has 2.4 million subscribers
in the U.S., Canada, and the
U.K., and connects them
to people they want to call
worldwide. Affordability is
the chief selling point. Al-
though VoIP technology has
been around for a decade,
it is gaining new accep-
tance as U.S. consumers
become more willing to give
up the landline. Mobile plat-
forms are a new area for
growth. “Our contribution
is to bring software- and
internet-based communica-
tions to the world through
any cloud-enabled device,
whether it’s an iPhone or an
Android phone or an iPad,”
says Rowan.
The company’s turn-
around is based on three
solid legs: stabilizing the
core business, which has
greatly reduced customer
churn, making operational
improvements, and
refinancing the balance
sheet through two compre-
hensive refinancings that
lowered interest rates from
a high of 20 percent to less
than 4 percent. As to the
future, Vonage is focusing
on a three-pronged growth
strategy: increasing interna-
tional long distance callers
based in the U.S., building
a mobile services business,
and growing in countries
that Vonage does not
currently serve, primarily
by developing partnerships.
The first such partnership
is with a company in the
Philippines.
A GOODCFOWORKS FOR INVESTORS, EMPLOYEES,
CUSTOMERS�AND ALSO SOCIETY
Finding
Growth
During Rapid
Change