Verizon Communications has announced the appointment of a new CEO from 1 August. Hans Vestberg, currently head of Global Networks and the company’s CTO, will succeed Lowell McAdam, who will serve as executive chairman of the board until he retires at the end of the year. After that, he will become a non-executive chairman.
McAdam became CEO in August 2011, and chairman in January 2012. Since that time, Verizon has made more than USD 120 billion in capital investments, in addition to AWS, Straight Path and other spectrum purchases, and pursued an M&A strategy focused on mobile, media and broadband services. It has returned over USD 54 billion to shareholders in cash dividends. Under McAdam, Verizon took over complete ownership of Verizon Wireless in 2014 through a USD 130 billion purchase of Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in the company. He also led the acquisitions of major media, fiber and telematics assets, including AOL, Yahoo, XO Communications and the purchase of millions of miles of fibre from Corning, as well as divestments of non-strategic wireline, tower and data centre operations.
Vestberg earlier served as CEO at Ericsson for seven years and had a 28-year career with the Swedish company. He was also a founding member of the International Telecommunications Union's Broadband Commission for Digital Development, where he led climate-change and digital-health initiatives. Vestberg joined Verizon in 2017 to head up the newly created networks and technology department.
