Garry Betty Dies

Charles (Garry) Betty, President and CEO of Earthlink, has lost his battle with "a serious form of cancer". Those logging in to Earthlink are met with a photo of Getty, the dates 1957-2007, and the message "we have lost a trusted leader and a true friend."

Betty joined Earthlink in 1996 and watched the company grow from a regional ISP boasting less than 100,000 members to a national company with more than five million subscribers.

It was only six weeks ago, on November 21, 2006, that Earthlink held a press conference to announce Betty's diagnosis and to say that he would be taking an undetermined leave of absence from the company in order to fight the cancer. Earthlink at that time also announced that Mike Lunsford, executive vice president of the Earthlink voice and access business unit, would step in immediately and act as interim CEO.

No announcement has been made regarding services for Betty. Anyone wishing to leave their condolences may do so at the site of Garry's blog, located at http://gbetty.ning.com/