Michel Combes, an exec who is late of Altice N.V. and Alcatel-Lucent, has been named president and chief financial officer of Sprint.
Combes starts in that role on January 6, reporting to Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure. Combes, is relocating to the Kansas City area, will also be appointed to the Sprint board at a later date. Current Sprint CFO Terek Robbiati will remain with the company through January 31 to help with the transition.
Combes most recently was CEO of Altice N.V. He resigned that post in November amid a broader management shakeup at the company. Combes, 55, was also the former CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, leading the company to its merger with Nokia in 2015. He is also late of France Telecom, Vodafone Europe and TDF, and served as an advisor to Brightstar, a company founded by Claure.
RELATED: Altice N.V. Shakes Up Management Ranks
Altice USA, comprised of Altice’s acquisitions of Cablevision Systems and Suddenlink, and Sprint announced a “full” MVNO deal in November 2017.
Combes, who joins Sprint a couple of months after Sprint and T-Mobile scuttled their merger talks, will head up financial operations, strategy and “continued cost transformation” at Sprint, the company said.
"Michel is an extremely capable and accomplished global telecom and cable industry leader and I know bringing him on board will help to accelerate our progress as Sprint begins the next chapter of our transformation," Claure said in a statement. "He is a visionary executive with a proven track record of successfully transforming leading telecom and media companies and will help us to execute our strategic plan and strengthen our team."
"I have known Marcelo for many years and am delighted to join the Sprint team and build upon the great progress achieved to date," Combes said. "This is an exciting challenge and unique opportunity to help lead a distinguished company through an historic turnaround and its most exciting period yet."
