Kenny Troutt
Kenny Troutt was the founder of Excel Communications, a Texas based telecommunications company that used MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) to offer its main product, a long distance phone service. Troutt became an instant billionaire in 1998 when he sold the Excel business to Teleglobe for $3.5 billion, his share netting him a cool $1.4 billion.
Troutt was the son of a bartender and was raised in Mount Vernon, Illinois projects. Mount Vernon is located at 38°18′49″N, 88°54′29″W (38.313512, -88.908159).GR1
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 30.1 km˛ (11.6 mi˛). 29.8 km˛ (11.5 mi˛) of it is land and 0.3 km˛ (0.1 mi˛) of it (0.86%) is water.
Mt. Vernon is located on high ground between Casey Creek and the Big Muddy River, which join south of the town in what is now Rend Lake. In pre-settlement times the area around these waterways was a swamp, a heavily forested area that was waist-deep in water during much of the winter and during wet summers. Mt. Vernon was thus often surrounded by water and swamp on three sides.
High ground was located to the north of Mt. Vernon. A ridge ran between the Big Muddy River and Casey Creek north toward what is now Dix, Illinois.
There are high places west and east of Mt. Vernon from which one can see the town as a forested point of high ground jutting out into the bottoms. These high places are: from the west, near the Woodlawn interchange off Interstate 64 and from the east, on Old Fairfield Road near Summersville School, with the highest point located on Old Route 15 right before it merges with New Route 15, near Bluford, Illinois.
He paid his way through college (Southern Illinois University) where he studied for a Bachelor of Arts in Science by working construction jobs and selling life insurance.
Troutt, who is 58 years old, has three children and has been married twice. He lives in Dallas, Texas. He co-owns the WinStar Farms operation in Kentucky, a 1400+ acre state-of-the-art thoroughbred breeding and training centre.
Excel Communications
Excel Communications was founded in 1988 by Dallas entrepreneur Kenny Troutt as a long distance reseller in the US telecom sector at the birth of telecom deregulation.
In the beginning, as the 432nd-largest long distance company in the United States, it began selling franchises through the business model of network marketing or multi-level marketing (MLM). In seven years, it became the fourth-largest long distance carrier in America and the youngest billion-dollar-annual company in history (8 years as compared to the second fastest growing, Microsoft, which took 15 years).
On May 10, 1996, Excel became the youngest company ever to join the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) trading under the symbol (ECI). The ceremonial honor of ringing the opening bell was afforded to, Kenny Troutt, as the company he founded began it's first day of public trading, with an offering of 11.5 million shares of common stock. Excel acquired Telco Communications Group, in June 1997, which was one of the nation's 10 largest long-distance phone companies with its own nationwide fiber-optic network. Before the purchase, Excel had to resell long distance service through other companies networks, such as Frontier. In November 1998, Excel merged with Teleglobe.
Kenny Troutt retired as CEO, to be replaced by Christina Gold, on September 20th, 1999.
By 2002, Excel had entered the local phone service market more aggressively than smaller competitors such as MCI's Neighborhood. However, the gross margins associated with long-distance telephone service dropped precipitously during the period from 1998 through 2003 due to the entry of numerous competitors and additional line capacity into this sector. As such, the profitability of Excel and almost every other telecommunications firm dependent upon long-distance calling customer dropped precipitously.
At some point Excel/Teleglobe was taken over by Teleglobe's major share holder, Bell Canada. Bell Canada then demoted Excel separately to a subsidiary and eventually spun it off to a private company, VarTec Communications, which required FTC approval to return to the private sector. After approval, VarTec continued the network marketing business model for sometime thereafter.
On November 1, 2004, VarTec Communications (the parent corporation of Excel) unexpectedly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the North Texas judicial sector. In this connection, Excel had sought to be released from its contracts with its independent representatives. This move made it likely that Excel, if it survived, would cease to be a multi-level marketing company.
In September 2005 the FCC approved the transfer of licenses to Comtel Assets, LLP and on June 12, 2006 the company emerged from bankruptcy under its new ownership, announcing a return to its former name (although with a slight change), Excel Telecom.
Other billionaires of interest;
Richard Peery
Dietmar Hopp
Jan Kulcyk
A. Alfred Taubman