NetEnterprise co-founder quits as CEO

By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer

NetEnterprise co-founder Burt Lum has stepped down as president and chief executive after leading the Honolulu-based Internet services company through several lean years.

Lum will be replaced by another Honolulu Internet entrepreneur: Benny Mateo, founder of Internet applications company NxTech Systems, according to a Net Enterprise press release.

Lum, who founded the company with James Martin and Jason Toth in 1998 and is still a major stockholder, said he will remain with NetEnterprise for about six months to ensure a smooth transition.

NetEnterprise runs an Internet data center out of its offices in an office tower at 1132 Bishop St. The company swiftly expanded during the late-1990s telecommunications boom, signing up clients including Oceanic Time Warner Cable and Bank of Hawaii for its services.

But the telecommunications industry's recent decline has been hard on NetEnterprise. Lum said yesterday that the company has cut half of its staff in the past two years as it lost several key clients. NetEnterprise now employs 40 after peaking at 85 in early 2001. The company lost money through most of 2002, returning to profits in November, Lum said.

Lum said differences over the company's 2003 plans led to his resignation.

"The other shareholders felt that, with some new management and a new vision, they could achieve the goals they wanted quicker than the visions I had put in place," he said.

Mateo said NetEnterprise has to change to suit the leaner times, which call for a more aggressive approach.

"We have only scratched the surface of the available opportunities," he said. "As Internet technologies continue to evolve, NetEnterprise must do the same."