The Agent Alliance, a consortium of 16 telecom agencies, has dropped its volunteer-based management structure in favor of a full-time paid staff, including a CEO. The group has tapped alliance member company ARG to provide management services, including the leadership of its president Bill Power as the alliance’s new CEO.
The group’s part-time executive director Ernie Kelly’s contract ends in May. His administrative role will fall to Power and support staff at ARG.
Power has divested his responsibilities (not ownership) at ARG to take on the role, which marks a significant change for the consortium, which over the years has evolved from a networking organization to a buying consortium. Kelly was pivotal in helping manage the initial transition, Power said.
“The alliance really did grow to be a business,” said Agent Alliance President Ben Humphreys, president of COMTEL Communications, explaining the need for the change to a commercial leadership structure. He added that the alliance itself holds $50 million to $60 million in five carrier contracts.
In addition to bringing on a CEO, the group is considering changes to its elected leadership, said Humphreys. Last year the group empowered its seven-member executive committee to make decisions. Humphreys expects that to continue. The group also is considering two-year terms for committee members. If that change to the bylaws is approved at the alliance meeting in March, then Humphreys likely will stay on as president through 2008.
Humphreys said the need for the CEO became apparent to him when he took office last March. “By April 15, I was screaming, ‘Uncle!,’” he said, noting that it became immediately clear that the group was leaving opportunities on the table. “In the volunteer format, we could manage fires, but we couldn’t go be offensive as a unit.”
Humphreys lead the initiative to change the leadership of the group and felt strongly that an effective CEO be an insider – someone that not only knew what it meant to run an agency, but also someone who was familiar with the members. “I felt we needed him to hit the ground running” instead of taking six to eight months to get comfortable, Humphreys said.
Power is a past president of the Agent Alliance and also one of the founding members of the group. In addition, his resume includes 15 years in association management, so he brings translatable experience to the new post. Power says ARG has spent the past few months reorganizing to free up Power’s day-to-day responsibilities for the agency in order to focus exclusively on the alliance business. His efforts began in October, but the management contract was signed in January and began Feb. 1.
