PEOPLE: McAdam move prompts VZW musical chairs
3 November 2010
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Extract from Vodafonewatch, report #86. Click through for: the Executive Brief from this month’s report; the Report Snapshot; or to contact us for more information about the full 58-page report, this industry standard monthly report service, and ongoing subscription access.
PEOPLE
McAdam move prompts VZW musical chairs
Verizon Wireless (VZW) made a series of changes to its senior management team, partly initiated by drafting in of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lowell McAdam by senior parent Verizon Communications (VZ) as Chief Operating Officer (COO), in a move believed to set him up as a successor to current VZ CEO Ivan Seidenberg. Other changes included:
- Daniel Mead, COO at VZW, took over McAdam’s position at the helm of the mobile operator.
- John Stratton, Chief Marketing Officer at VZW, succeeded Mead as COO.
- Marni Walden replaced Stratton, following her promotion from role as President of Southern California Region at VZW.
- Vodafone Essar’s Andrew Davies was appointed VZW’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) — a position Vodafone appears to control on the joint venture’s Board. Davies was CFO at Vodafone Essar for three years, having earlier: performed the same role at Vodafone Turkey; served as Finance Director for Vodafone Japan; and been head of Finance for the Consumer Business unit within Vodafone UK.
- VZW CFO John Townsend returned to Vodafone as CFO for the Group’s Europe Region.
Vodafone’s CFO switch a “planned rotation”
John Killian, CFO of VZ, who has also announced plans to retire later in 2010, denied suggestions at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference that the various moves are related in some way to behind the scenes negotiations between Vodafone and VZ on cash extraction from the joint venture.
“I don’t want people to think there is darts here. So the CFO of [VZW] leaving; John Townsend [JT] has been the CFO. We have one Vodafone employee in the business; it is John Townsend. He has been there 5.5 years. So it was a planned rotation that we had for John to go back. He’s going back — he has done a great job for us, by the way. JT has been a superb financial guy. He is going back for a great opportunity for him, which is to be the CFO of their European operations, I think to take some of what he learned here in terms of the operating model and bring it back to Vodafone.”
“We have the individual coming in from Vodafone, who has been running their India operation, Andrew Davies. Lowell and I jointly interviewed him, met him, top class guy.” -- Killian.
Killian also played down the prospect of a near term resolution of the two VZW shareholders’ issues, denying a leading suggestion that the relationship might have become “simpler” had he stayed on for a further few months.
[Further reference: Executive Leadership -- VZW; Verizon Wireless names Andrew Davies CFO -- Reuters, 9 September 2010; Verizon at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference -- final -- FD Wire, 20 September 2010; Verizon clarifies succession plans; names Lowell McAdam as COO -- VZW, 20 September 2010.]
Read takes Vodacom seat, Vodafone grip tightened
Nick Read, Chief Executive of Africa, Asia Pacific, and Middle East (AAPME) Region at Vodafone, replaced Group Investor Relations Director Richard Snow on the Board of Vodacom Group, reflecting Read’s recent assumption of responsibility for the South African operator (Vodafonewatch, 2010.10).
While Snow’s exit may indicate easing of investor relations challenges associated with Vodacom’s 2009 initial public offering (Vodafonewatch, 2009.05), it is interesting that Read has not merely swapped places with Morten Lundal, the Group’s new Chief Commercial Officer, who passed regional oversight of Vodacom to Read in the same recent reshuffle. This means that, from a strategic perspective, Vodafone is now extremely well represented on Vodacom’s Board, with Read, Lundal, and Vodafone Italy Chief Executive Paolo Bertoluzzo in situ, as well as Ronald Schellekens (Group Human Resources Director) and Michael Joseph (Chief Executive of Safaricom).
While this rejig should offer benefits for collaboration between Vodafone regions, and linkage between Vodacom and the commercial Group operations that now sit under Lundal (such as Vodafone Global Enterprise, which recently expanded into South Africa — Vodafonewatch, passim), Vodafonewatch is yet to be convinced that Vodacom has convincingly benefited from the increased central influence it has come under following its 2009 consolidation into Vodafone Group proper.
[Further reference: Resignation and appointment of director -- Vodacom, 15 September 2010.]
Knook becomes latest victim of Group reorg
Pieter Knook, Director of Vodafone Internet Services (VIS), departed the Group after little more than two and a half years, seemingly paying the price for the troubles that have tainted the unit’s flagship Vodafone 360 web services platform since its launch in late 2009 (Vodafonewatch, passim).
It is unclear if the former Microsoft executive walked or was pushed, but the trigger was evidently the recent Group reorganisation that brought VIS under the wing of Morten Lundal, Group Chief Commercial Officer. Announced in September 2010, the restructuring has also seen Group Chief Marketing Officer Wendy Becker pushed aside after Lundal was given a mandate from Group Chief Executive Vittorio Colao to tighten control over, and revitalise the performance of, Vodafone’s outward facing central functions (Vodafonewatch, 2010.09 and see separate report).
Knook, an appointee of Colao predecessor Arun Sarin, perhaps alluded to tension with Colao and/or Lundal when revealing his departure on Twitter, saying: “five days before I leave Vodafone. Freedom beckons”. Vodafone merely said that, “with the recent changes in Vodafone Group’s organisation structure, and the creation of the Group Commercial function, we can confirm that Pieter has decided to leave the business”.
Knook’s exit comes following ‘reshaping’ of VIS in recent months, with failed location acquisition Wayfinder being wound up, and the unit taking on a wider role in increasingly competitive emerging markets, via low footprint browser rollout with Opera Software, and an innovation centre in India (Vodafonewatch, 2009.02, 2010.04, and 2010.07-08).
It also comes at an especially crucial time for the unit, not only with Vodafone’s data revenue and ‘customer ownership’ under threat from Google and Apple, in particular, but also with the reception to 360 seeming lukewarm; and with higher level value added service (VAS) strategy appearing adrift, or worse. Vodafone recently retreated from a ‘high touch’, ‘go it alone’ approach, moving to pushing 360 adoption through own brand smartphones (Vodafonewatch, 2010.07-08), but there have been signs that its new strategy to add the platform to third party handsets, via updates and customisation, is not yet sitting well with consumers (Vodafonewatch, 2010.07-08, 2010.09 and see separate report).
Tellingly, Vodafone has also increasingly been turning to rival operators for collaborative help on VAS, merging the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) mobile widget development initiative into the GSM Association’s Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), and apparently discussing development of a common mobile operating system with Deutsche Telekom, France Télécom, and Telefónica Group (Vodafonewatch, 2010.07-08 and see separate report).
A point of support for Knook would be that, while his time at VIS will primarily be linked with 360 and related mobile application initiatives such as JIL and WAC, his impact also includes behind the scenes work on centralisation of Vodafone service development platforms, which could be equally if not more significant to the Group in terms of efficiency and innovation. Vodafone has yet to go into detail on the programme, known as Mondrian, but it is expected to ultimately form the architectural basis for the Group’s ‘smart pipe’ strategy, easing roll out of cloud services (both consumer and enterprise) across territories, and handling abstraction with network features such as billing and positioning.
García Urgelés takes over VIS reins
Vodafonewatch understands that VIS is now reporting into former Vodafone Spain executive Antonio García Urgelés, the Group’s recently appointed Head of Consumer Internet Services.
[Further reference: Knook to quit as Vodafone stalls on web ambitions -- Financial Times, 27 September 2010.]
People movement highlights
[Table omitted.]
[Further reference: The Australian; Hindu Business Line; Mobile; Mobile News; Patni Computer Systems; Vodafone; various.]
About Vodafonewatch
Report: #86
Covering: September/October 2010
Published: October 2010
Next report: November 2010
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