The news late Tuesday evening that Sprint CEO Dan Hesse was reportedly stepping down from his post come Wednesday, to be replaced by Brightstar owner Marcelo Claure, was a bit of a shock given Sprint and parent SoftBank's tenacious attempt to acquire T-Mobile this year.
That ardent business effort is also ending, according to news reports.
As Sprint announced Wednesday Hesse will leave the job on August 11.
Claure, 43, joined the Sprint board of directors in January and is the founder and CEO of Brightstar Corp., a subsidiary of SoftBank Corp. His first priority, states the release, will "be to continue the build out of Sprint's network by leveraging its strong spectrum holdings as well as ensuring that Sprint always maintains truly competitive offers in the marketplace."
The news comes as a bit of a surprise given Hesse's been at the helm for seven years and played a pivotal role in keeping Sprint a competitor in likely the most competitive tech market second only to smartphones.
During his years as CEO Hesse received the Corporate Responsibility Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013 and was named by Glassdoor in 2014 as being among the highest-rated CEOs by employees. He received Wireless Week's Leadership Award twice and in the 2014 American Customer Satisfaction Index Sprint was cited the most improved U.S. company in overall customer satisfaction, across all 43 industries, over the last six years.
That achievement reflects Hesse's initial goal when he took on the job in late 2007.
"I'm proud of the resilience of Sprint's people during a difficult transformation and I'm optimistic about how they will build on a foundation of innovation to succeed in the future," Hesse said. "It's been an honor to have led such dedicated teammates for more than six-and-a-half years," he said in the release.
Hesse took the helm of Sprint when it was still called Sprint Nextel. In an interview at the time he related that his biggest career decision up to that point, which could have easily been a career killer, had been turning down a new role at AT&T's headquarters in order to finish an ambitious AT&T telecom project in the Netherlands.
"It was about me developing my own skills and doing something for myself. I worked hard to do that and had a real sense of personal accomplishment," he shared in a profile interview.
As I reported in that profile Hesse's leadership tenacity and his love of the 60's sci-fi classic "Star Trek" earned him the nickname "Captain Kirk" during his 23 years at AT&T where he eventually did serve as president and CEO of AT&T Wireless Services from 1997 to 2000.
He then served as CEO of Terabeam from 2000 to 2004 and then took the helm at Embarq, a service provider Sprint had spun-off in 2006 as part of its merger with Nextel. Not even a year later, he was named CEO at Sprint Nextel.
It was a competitive marketplace even way back then, as wireless connectivity and cell phone demand was burgeoning. It was way before today's carrier price wars and smartphones that perform as well as 35mm cameras. Sprint was No. 3 in the market and Hesse knew he likely had his greatest career challenge ahead.
And just as Captain Kirk often discovered in the galaxy, battling the unknown and all the twists and turns in the wireless industry is more than a bit challenging. And much hasn't changed given Verizon Wireless, which was in second place behind AT&T at that time, remains the dominant force in the cellular and wireless universe.
Back then the Overland Park, Kan.-based carrier was cemented in third place in the industry. At the time, Sprint's biggest headache was improving customer service. It was a business goal Hesse intended to change and change fast giving the telecom's failing score on customer satisfaction polls at the time.
He then turned his attention to developing new consumer focused plans and programs, launching one of the earliest, if not the initial, all-you-can-use data plan for under $100.
He even starred in commercials promoting the new consumer option. He saw early on how critical apps would play in the wireless industry, and his favorite one at the time was a voice-activated GPS.
"For customers, it's about having the most applications, the unique applications and unique content. But it's also about the rate plan and the device," he said at the time.
