Lawrence Babbio, Jr.
Lawrence T. Babbio, Jr., generally called Larry, is a former vice chairman and president of Verizon, with responsibility for the Verizon Telecom and Verizon Business units. He was also a member of the board of directors of Verizon Wireless. Since 2007, Babbio has been a senior adviser to Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm.[1]
Babbio began his communications career in 1966 with New Jersey Bell Telephone. He served in a variety of positions in engineering, network construction, and technology development with New Jersey Bell and AT&T. In January 1995 he was elected vice chairman of Bell Atlantic Corporation.
Prior to the Bell Atlantic/GTE merger, Babbio was president and chief operating officer for Bell Atlantic. He shared oversight of, and responsibility for, all of the corporation's business operations, restructuring of the business units, the GTE merger process, and developing new growth opportunities.
Babbio also served as chairman of the company's Global Wireless Group, one of the largest wireless operations worldwide. He was the lead executive in charge of developing Bell Atlantic's domestic and international wireless communications strategy. Under his leadership, Bell Atlantic substantially increased the size and scope of its domestic and international wireless holdings.
In May 2002 Babbio was elected to the board of directors of Hewlett-Packard Company. He previously served on the board of Compaq Computer Corporation since 1995. He has served on the board of ARAMARK Corporation since 1999. Babbio also serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees of Stevens Institute of Technology.
He holds a B.E. in electrical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, and an M.B.A. from New York University.
Allegations of financial misconduct
On September 17, 2009 Attorney General Anne Milgram announced charges against Lawrence Babbio and Stevens Institute of Technology president Harold J. Raveché.[2][3] According to the state's 16-count lawsuit, Stevens' leaders kept several trustees in the dark about the school's financial condition. Raveché and his administration allegedly spent the school's money at greater rates than the board approved, scavenging restricted assets, excessive loans and gifts to the school earmarked for other purposes. Milgram is also seeking reforms to the school's governance and accounting.
The lawsuit alleges that Raveché and Babbio misrepresented the finances of the school and caused the endowment to fall by $42 million from $157 million in 2000 to $115 million in 2009.[4] The lawsuit brings to light that Raveché received below-market loans from the school, at least some of which were forgiven by Stevens.[5] The complaint also raises questions about Raveché's salary which has been greater than that of the president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a much larger, better known school.[5] Raveché's last year salary was approximately $1,119,685 plus $350,000 expenses for a total compensation of $1,469,685.[citation needed]
The school has denied the allegations and contends that the state attorney general has overstepped her legal authority.[1] Stevens unsuccessfully sought to keep the Attorney General's lawsuit a secret.[5][2]
The New York Times reports that Jack B. Siegel, a Chicago lawyer specializing in nonprofits, said that the Stevens case is “the case of the year“ in nonprofit circles because there are accusations that the school was “keeping two sets of books, misleading the board and forgiveness of below-market-rate loans.”[4] Siegel was reported to say that the “entire process of oversight looks tainted. You rarely see a case this extreme.“[4]
The New York Times, in a later editorial, has called this matter the “The Stevens Scandal“ and has asked New Jersey's incoming Attorney General to pursue the case vigorously.[3]
The Stute, the Stevens campus paper, has declined to provide an opinion on the lawsuit because “all of the facts involved in the lawsuit have not yet been made public.“[6]
The litigation was settled on January 15, 2010. The settlement required Raveché to repay low-interest loans from the school, and for Stevens to correct by-laws and avoid future financial misconduct.[7]
References
- ↑ Forbes Magazine profile
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- ↑ http://www.stevens.edu/pdf/fcj.pdf
