When Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE/Toronto: NT) announces its earnings tomorrow, a new CFO will officiate -- one who's a virtual stranger to the world outside the company.

Douglas C. Beatty, Nortel's new CFO (see Nortel Names Beatty CFO), has kept a low profile, eschewing any public exposure beyond signing his name to all formal financial documents for the past few quarters. Indeed, he's been the controller for a little over three years, despite being a man of mystery. Search the Web in vain. Scour Nortel's site and you'll find nary a bio. Analysts polled for this article don't have personal opinions about him at all. "I've never even heard of the guy," one says.

Still, he's taken the helm of one of the most troubled firms in the technology sector. And Wall Street thinks it's a yawn. As Nortel's stock dropped $0.05 (3.45%) to $1.40, it looked as if some investors may even have been turned off by the choice.

Nortel's top team is sometimes accused of resisting the input of fresh blood to their "old boys' club." These mutterings greeted the rise of former CFO Frank Dunn to the post of CEO last year (see Nortel Swings Axe, Switches CEOs), and they're likely to surface now.

And that's not a fair assessment, some analysts say. "I wouldn't be... harsh. Innovation is hardly the role of the CFO," says one Canadian financial analyst, who asked not to be named. "Keep inmind, Dunn was in charge of the group, so promoting from within is expected, since it was his team to start with."

Others say it's a matter of the devil you know: "Being CFO of Nortel isn't an easy task," says Joanna Makris, analyst with Adams Harkness & Hill. "In this kind of environment, where everyone's up in arms at the least discrepancy, it may be better to have an insider in charge."

For better or worse, though, it's high time Nortel filled the post. Frank Dunn has been acting CFO as well as CEO since February 2002 -- a situation for which he's taken plenty of shareholder heat (see Shareholders Blast Nortel ).

A chartered financial accountant by training, Beatty joined Nortel back in 1985 but quit in 1995 to take a job as VP finance at Sprint Canada. He returned in 1999 as controller, working briefly for Terry G. Hungle, the CFO who left in February after allegedly transferring his 401K funds outside the permitted timeframe (see Nortel CFO Leaves After Probe).

Nortel wasn't able at press time to state who will replace Beatty as controller.

— Mary Jander, Senior Editor, Light Reading
http://www.lightreading.com