While the majority of shareholder outrage in the recent years has centered on banks and financial companies devastated by the housing and credit crunch, many people have forgotten telecom CEOs are some of the most well-known for the expanding the gap between pay and capability. Many people would argue telecom executives have not had an easy ride, especially having to deal with the 2000/2001 burst of the tech bubble along with consolidation and falling revenue in the sphere. However, many people would argue telecom executives have had plenty of time to get it right. Whatever side anyone may be on, it’s undeniable that some telecom CEOs have been more anxious to short-term ambitions and objective in order to secure bonus payments, expanding falling stock prices and stagnating company growth. With that said here are the top 20 worst CEOs in the telecom industry.

Bernie Ebbers – WorldCom
Of course no one else could take the number one spot except the co-founder of the telecommunications company WorldCom. Ebbers was once rated as one of Forbes Magazine’s top 200 richest Americans. In the 1980’s Ebbers purchased a virtually unknown telephone carrier and over nearly twenty years turned it into the world’s largest telecommunications company along with various acquisitions. However, Ebbers ’passion’ for acquisitions caught up with him when WorldCom’s debt was exposed when the company’s stock plummeted in 2000. The company had to eventually file for bankruptcy three years later as its stock went from $64.50 to $1.79 and Ebbers was charged with trying to cover the company’s financial faux paus via fraudulent accounting and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Bob Allen – AT&T
Clearly misguided and misjudged AT&T CEO Bob Allen forced a merger with computer company NCR Corp and AT&T felt the effects of the ill deal to the tune of losses of more than $12 billion in AT&T’s market value. To thwart any further losses Allen decided to lay off 50,000 AT&T employees.

Joe P. Nacchio – Qwest
While Qwest Chairman, Nacchio served on two federal advisory panels — the Network Reliability and Interoperability Council and the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee he thought he could beguile Wall Street investors the company would hit highly aggressive revenue targets betting on receiving government contracts. When Qwest was not able to hit those marks the company’s stock began a sharp decline in May 2001, falling from $38 to below $2 by August 2002. In mid 2002 Nacchio resigned from Qwest amid insider trading rumors. On March 15, 2005, Nacchio and six other former Qwest executives were officially accused of a “massive” $3 billion financial fraud between 1999 and 2002 and of benefiting from inflated stock prices. Nacchio was convicted on 19 of 42 counts of insider trading case on April 19, 2007.

Frank Dunn – Nortel
For a company historically plagued by top executives engaging in questionable activities that led to company stock crashes for personal gain, Frank Dunn was no exception. Dunn was originally hired to replace controversial CEO John Roth, but he later would meet a similar fate. In order to drastically restructure the company Dunn laid off two-thirds of its workforce, around 60,000 staff members, and performed write downs of nearly US$16 billion in 2001. Dunn’s approach initially was deemed as a success with the emergence of Nortel’s 2003 first quarter and unexpected reports of profitability. However, Dunn and his executives overestimated and triggered a total of US$19 million in bonuses to the top 43 managers, with US$5 million alone going to Dunn. After a questionable restatement of liabilities investigators discovered around $3 billion in revenue was booked improperly from 1998 to 2000. Dunn was fired on April 28, 2004 for financial mismanagement along with other top-level executives and they were accused of engaging in accounting fraud by the SEC.

Vivek Ragavan – Redback Networks
Under president and CEO Vivek Ragavan, Redback Networks growth rate was essentially demolished and its operating results slipped into the red taking the once successful telecom companies shares down 1.85 (15.81%) to 9.85, the lowest since the company’s 1999 IPO. The small telecom company had to layoff 15% of it’s staff to accommodate the fiscal blows the company experienced. Redback chairman and temporary CEO Pierre Lamond stated said the company agreed to part ways with the former CEO because Redback needed a leader with robust operations experience as opposed to the more experienced Ragavan. Lamond said, “the board decided that having a lame duck CEO was not in the best interests of the company”.

Paul Reynolds – Telecom
New Zealand Telecommunications’ company, Telecom’s future seems pretty grim. Thanks to Four XT outages since December 2009, the snafu has led to the resignations of top Telecom executives and $15 million of Telecom shareholders holdings have gone to compensation packages for lost XT coverage. Telecom NZ shares fell to NZ$2.30 and Telecoms shares are down nearly 5% on the New York Stock Exchange. However, Reynolds and company have offered customers an apology and a credit for poor services only if they remain with the company, otherwise they should not expect anything. Many Telecom customers are saying not good enough.

Gary Forsee – Sprint
Apparently Sprint does not appreciate customer feedback because under former CEO Gary Forsee’s leadership in early 2007 Sprint caught a lot of backlash after the comapny ended contracts of 1,000 of its 53 million customers who were allegedly making 40 to 50 calls a month complaining about the service (maybe that was a hint). In the third quarter of 2007 337,000 more customers parted ways with the company on their own, which ultimately led to Forsee’s termination.

Ivan Seidenberg – Verizon
No, he’s not on the list because the telecommunications powerhouse is tanking. Seidenberg is on the list because clearly he has no regard for customer service (much like Sprint). In a highly publicized interview Seidenberg taunted Verizon’s San Francisco customer’s interest in building a municipal Wi-Fi network that would be designed to offer cheap or free Internet service throughout the city. Seidenberg replied “That could be one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard”. Seidenberg went on to say that customers are expected too much of telecommunications companies and have no idea how they operate. For a company that has been known to violate consumer privacy, since they have shared personal cell phone data with affiliates, agents, and parent companies, you would think they would want to make nice with customers.

Mark Lefar – Vonage
Despite their ads still being all over the place, once high-flying alternative phone company, Vonage, has seen their stock fall to around $1.40 under new CEO Mark Lefar’s management. Despite his company’s sinking ship Lefar seems to be enjoying a boost in perks. In an amended employment contract attached to the 10Q the company filed, Lefar’s the salary has not changed, but his travel benefit more than doubled. Under the old agreement, Vonage covered only $250K in travel expenses between Lefar’s home in Atlanta and Vonage’s headquarters in Holmdel, New Jersey. However, in the new agreement, Lefar’s travel expenses exploded to $600K. Even if Vonage were a huge telecom conglomerate it would still be difficult validate such large travel expenses. However, since Vonage isn’t that makes it even more unfathomable.

John Roth – Nortel
John Roth led Nortel to the top as Canada’s leading telecom company during the 1990s high-tech boom. Nortel was the most important stock traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and was one of Canada’s top employers. Seemingly along with the collapse of the internet bubble Nortel’s stock plummeted in 2000. Nortel Networks market value declined from $398 billion to less than $5 billion, and more than 60,000 people were laid off by the company. Roth was condemned after it was discovered that he manipulated the company’s and his own stock options for a personal gain of $135 million in 2000.