TeleTech has new head for its RP contact centers

MANILA, Philippines - US-based TeleTech has named a new general manager for its Philippine contact center operations after its previous head resigned to “take some time off." Richard Bledsoe, the company’s current chief operating officer, will assume the position vacated by Maulik Parekh, TeleTech’s local office said. No announcement has yet been made by its parent nor its chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Kenneth Tuchman. Bledsoe, a veteran BPO executive, once served as COO of PeopleSupport (now Aegis-PeopleSupport). He was also a former vice president at two call center firms, SourceCorp. and ACS (Affiliated Computer Services). In his profile at LinkedIn, Bledsoe was listed as having completed his Mass Communication degree at the University of Utah in 1983. Meanwhile, in a May 6, 2009 farewell letter to employees, Parekh said he would “rejuvenate and reflect" on his next professional challenge without mentioning what it was nor saying where he was headed. Parekh, a product of Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, reminisced in his letter how he landed in the Philippines in June 2006 with just a couple of bags for a supposedly three-month assignment. His stay, however, eventually stretched to three long years. “And what a journey it has been….together, we set out to climb the magic mountain…a mountain taller than any other and a mountain that no one has dared to climb," Parekh wrote. The “magic mountain" that the Indian-born executive was talking about referred to the company’s goal of reaching the 25,000-employee mark. At the time of Parekh’s appointment as TeleTech’s head honcho, he said the call center had about 6,000 employees in four sites. “Getting to the summit… seemed intimidating and overwhelming. But we didn’t hesitate. We were determined. We were bold. And together with a spirit of malasakit in our heart we set out to conquer the magic mountain," he narrated. Parekh, however, did not clearly state in his letter if the company realized its goal of employing 25,000 workers. During the launch of Teletech’s 12th delivery center in Iloilo on March 2, the Philippines’ Office of the Press Secretary said in a statement that the company had a base of “more than 22,000 employees nationwide, “making [it] the largest foreign BPO employer in the Philippines." In its first quarter 2009 report, TeleTech reported a revenue decline of 8.4 percent or $27.8 million from the first quarter 2008 and 5.7 percent or $18.4 million from the fourth quarter 2008. These declines, the company said, were primarily attributable to lower client volumes related to the weak economic environment and increased offshore work when compared to the prior quarters. - GMANews.TV