Mike Sievert to become new CEO on May 1, 2020.

Dan Jones, Mobile Editor

November 18, 2019

2 Min Read
The Un-CEO: Legere to Leave T-Mobile

John Legere, one of the most colorful leaders in the telecom industry, will leave as T-Mobile's CEO when his contract ends on April 30, 2020, the operator announced Monday. The CEO position at the self-proclaimed 'Uncarrier' will be taken up by Mike Sievert, the company's current chief operating officer and president .

T-Mobile held a call Monday to announce the leadership move and other management changes. Legere and Sievert both insisted on the call that the moves change nothing about T-Mobile's proposed $26.5 billion merger with Sprint, which the companies hope to close early next year.

"Mike Sievert is absolutely the right choice to become the next CEO of T-Mobile," declared Legere on the call. "The timing of Mike and I has been in the works since 2012," he added later in the call.

Legere had been recently named as a possible CEO successor at WeWork, the troubled shared workspace company. But he denied this today. "I was never having discussions to run WeWork," said Legere, who positioned T-Mobile as the 'Uncarrier' in late 2013 with a set of competitive unlimited service offerings.

This leadership transition has been in the works for a while, T-Mobile says, citing a "comprehensive, multi-year, leadership succession planning process" with Legere's involvement. The main difference being that the Sprint merger was supposed to have closed by now, as Legere commented.

T-Mobile's proposed merger with Sprint still faces opposition from 16 US state attorneys general; their lawsuit against the merger is scheduled to head to court December 9 in a trial that is expected to last two to three weeks.

Sievert and Legere both said on the call that they felt good about T-Mobile winning the case.

Figure 1: Legere used video messages to good effect during his tenure. Legere used video messages to good effect during his tenure.

In other management moves at T-Mobile announced today, longtime CTO Neville Ray was awarded an upgraded position as president of technology. Meanwhile, Braxton Carter will stay on as CFO at T-Mobile until at least July 1, 2020, the operator said.

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— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Dan Jones

Mobile Editor

Dan is to hats what Will.I.Am is to ridiculous eyewear. Fedora, trilby, tam-o-shanter -- all have graced the Jones pate during his career as the go-to purveyor of mobile essentials.

But hey, Dan is so much more than 4G maps and state-of-the-art headgear. Before joining the Light Reading team in 2002 he was an award-winning cult hit on Broadway (with four 'Toni' awards, two 'Emma' gongs and a 'Brian' to his name) with his one-man show, "Dan Sings the Show Tunes."

His perfectly crafted blogs, falling under the "Jonestown" banner, have been compared to the works of Chekhov. But only by Dan.

He lives in Brooklyn with cats.

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