Chris Lewter: Verizon Wireless regional president draws on Detroit experience.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn
• Position: EXECUTIVE edge

WITHIN WEEKS OF MOVING TO Colorado as president of the Mountain Region for Verizon Wireless, Chris Lewter faced his first crisis--devastating fires that engulfed 18,000 acres of Colorado Springs.

"Our facilities and some of our network towers were in jeopardy," recalls Lewter, who watched an 18-wheeler come up from Texas decked out with Verizon equipment and a mobile cell site. "The most rewarding thing was to see a team pull together. We had employees who lost everything yet they kept working throughout the fire. It was all about making a difference in people's lives, and that is really powerful."

Lewter, 40, who has worked for Verizon for 14 years, was used to challenge, having worked in Detroit for five years at the start of the region's serious decline.

"It was tough to see a region go through so much economic strife, and seeing how it played on our business forced us to be more creative and do the right thing for our customers," Lewter said. "I watched firsthand companies go out of business and then saw other companies reinvent themselves, get creative and get lean and mean. That was a big learning opportunity for me."

The Detroit assignment also was, in part, instrumental in Lewter landing his job in Denver where the native of Asheville, N.C., oversees operations in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. Verizon employs 880 in Colorado and 1,580 throughout the region.

"The thing I've learned since being here is that the more time I am outside this office and in front of the teams.--whether it's in our stores, out with our business teams or on the operations side of the house--the more I learn, the more effective a leader I become."

He's part of a campaign to transform Verizon from a phone company to a technology-based company offering everything from medical technology, motor vehicle diagnostics and video conferencing to remote baby monitors

on parents phones and home security...