MCI’s Capellas to Succeed Ric Duques at First Data

DENVER – First Data Corp. said yesterday that Michael Capellas, the well-known former CEO at MCI, will head the payments processing giant after completion of its ongoing takeover by private equity fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Capellas will succeed Henry ‘Ric’ Duques, who built First Data and came out of retirement to sell the company in 2005. Capellas served as CEO of MCI (formerly Worldcom) from 2002 until its acquisition by Verizon last year. He also served as CEO of Compaq Computer and as president of Hewlett-Packard after HP bought Compaq. Since ending his brief retirement, Duques has re-engineered First data, first spinning off its Western Union operations last year, then acquiring several other payments companies, before selling First Data to KKR for $29 billion, one of the biggest corporate buyouts ever.