Ben Verwaayen has revamped AlcaLu's organizational structure and built a new management team that's a mix of new and old faces

November 13, 2008

4 Min Read
AlcaLu Unveils New Leadership Team

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) CEO Ben Verwaayen has revamped the company's organizational structure and shuffled his management deck, introducing a few wild (though not crazy) cards into the pack in the process.

The changes mark the transition from the post-merger, Pat Russo-led company into what Verwaayen, who joined the vendor in early September, hopes will be a revitalized and hungry organization. (See Verwaayen Takes the Helm at AlcaLu and The Diary of Ben V., Age 56.)

The overall reorganization takes effect on Jan. 1, 2009.

Joining Verwaayen to form the giant vendor's 14-strong management committee are:

Regional leaders

  • Robert Vrij, president, Americas: The former Openwave Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: OPWV) CEO joined the team at the end of October. (See AlcaLu Appoints New Americas Exec.)

  • Adolfo Hernandez, president, Europe, Middle East and Africa: The former Sun Microsystems Inc. executive was named to his new post last week and will begin his new job on Dec. 1. (See AlcaLu Hires Another New Exec.)

  • Etienne Fouques, president, APAC: The current head of Europe, Asia and Africa survives the revamp, but from Dec. 1 will be focused on the Asia/Pacific region.

    Business process leaders
    Verwaayen has created three new company-wide organizations, each with its own leader.

  • Kenneth Frank, president, Solutions and Marketing: It's an internal promotion for Frank, who is currently president of the vendor's Global Professional Services Business Division. Frank, who is based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, will be responsible for marketing functions and "bringing together the right products and services to create the complex solutions required by customers to address new opportunities," according to an AlcaLu job description breakdown supplied to Light Reading.

  • Janet Davidson, president, Quality and Customer Care: The current head of Transformation, Compliance, and IT retains her seat at the top table. Davidson will be "responsible for improving our quality process to meet complex customers’ environment."

    These two new AlcaLu organizations, according to the vendor, have been "created to significantly improve our pre sales and post sales activities, as well as the quality of our products and services."

  • Michel Rahier, president, Operations: A new role for the current Carrier Business Group chief. Rahier's mission will be to "achieve end-to-end best in class efficiency in manufacturing, logistics, supply chain and underlying processes, systems and IT." The Operations team is also responsible for all real estate and general services issues.

    Product and services leaders
    According to AlcaLu, the following four internal groups "reflect the company’s focus on open innovation led by Bell Labs, state-of-the-art product and software innovation as well as its continued momentum in Services and Enterprise markets."

Philippe Keryer, president, Carrier Product Group: The current head of Mobile Access (responsible for all mobile/wireless developments except for CDMA) gets an internal promotion that puts him in charge of service provider products. The role is almost the same as Rahier's current job, though a few piece parts (some applications and software development) have been moved elsewhere. See Keryer in action in the video interview below, conducted at this year's CTIA show.


  • Andy Williams, president, Services Group: It's a case of "as you were" for Williams, though the responsibility for OSS and BSS (operations support systems and business support systems) moves elsewhere. (See AlcaLu Names Services Head.)

  • Paul Segre, president, Applications Software Group: Segre is, and will continue to be, the president and CEO of Genesys, AlcaLu's wholly owned but independent contact center and customer service software business. But his new role encompasses some critical areas of carrier applications and software development, as he will be responsible for all software activities across the group, including IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), which is currently the remit of the Carrier Business Group, and OSS/BSS, inherited from the Services Group. (See AlcaLu Touts OmniTouch.)

  • Tom Burns, president, Enterprise Product Group: This is another executive who retains his current position.

    Group function leaders
    The management team is rounded off with three senior executives who retain their current roles.

  • Claire Pedini, Human Resources: She's keeping a watchful eye on the bodies.

  • Hubert de Pesquidoux, chief financial officer: He's keeping a watchful eye on the euros/dollars.

  • Jeong Kim, president, Bell Labs: This is an increasingly critical role, as Verwaayen is keen on making technology innovation one of AlcaLu's main differentiators as competition, customer spending issues, and the global economic slump weigh heavy on revenues and the vendor's share price, which today is down nearly 4 percent to €1.79 on the Paris exchange. (See AlcaLu Down, But Not Out, in Q3 and Big Ben Plays It Safe.)

    The reshuffle may mean that some other existing senior figures might be shown the exit door. Light Reading inquired about the roles that a number of specific individuals -- including Basil Alwan, the current head of the vendor's IP division and head of carrier portfolio strategy; Mary Chan, overall head of wireless; and Olivier Baujard, head of technology and Alcatel-Lucent France -- might have in the new AlcaLu. (See AlcaLu Expands Alwan's Role.) But the vendor says only that those, and other, divisional managers will continue in their posts until Jan. 1, and that "it will be the new leaders' role to build their teams."

    Let the lobbying begin.

    — Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading

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