Nadir Mohamed the natural choice to succeed Ted Rogers

The question of who should replace the late Ted Rogers as CEO of Rogers Communications Inc. has long been a thorny subject at Rogers headquarters in Toronto. The natural choice currently in the recently created office of the president, is Nadir Mohamed.

Mohamed came to Rogers after working for BCTel and Telus, and was instrumental in the acquisition of Microcell in 2004, which made RCI the largest provider of mobile services in Canada.

Alek Krstajic, head of prospective wireless operator BMV Holdings, warns it would be a mistake to count out Rogers' son, Edward Rogers, who heads the cable unit. While he has high praise for Mohamed – "Nadir is the single best executive in telecom in this country" – he said he now believes that a key element to the cable company's success lies in the fact that all can be traced back to a single person.

"There was a family feel to Rogers and a strength to the brand that comes from understanding that there is a person behind it," said Krstajic. "So, if there were problems, there was a person's name on it and that person would solve the problem."

Ultimately though, Edward Rogers lacks the experience and clout of Nadir Mohamed, and would likely support a move of Mohamed into the corner office.