T-Mobile's Colorful CEO John Legere To Step Down In 2020, Successor Named
Legere's contract ends on April 30th, 2020, and it will not be renewed. As a result, current Chief Operating Officer Mike Sievert will take on the role as CEO starting on May 1st, 2020. “John taught everyone at T-Mobile that if you listen to customers and empower employees, you can change a culture – and by doing so – change a company and an entire industry," said Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges. "John has had an enormously successful run as CEO [and] has put T-Mobile US in an incredibly strong position."
It was Legere that rolled out T-Mobile's successful "Uncarrier" initiative with value pricing and added perks to entice both existing customers and new customers alike. T-Mobile was also the first of the big four U.S. wireless carriers to bring back unlimited data plans, and it dragged the rest of the industry kicking and screaming back into the fold (for better or worse). Legere's bold strategies pushed T-Mobile from fourth place to third place in the U.S. wireless market in recent years.
Legere is also known for his "colorful" language and his willingness to trash the competition at every possible opportunity. Nary a press release goes by without Legere breaking bad on the two front-runner in the United States: Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Legere, of course, laid off the attack on fourth place wireless carrier Sprint, as the two companies are merging into one, and will challenge the AT&T/Verizon duopoly as an even stronger third place wireless carrier. It will be Sievert's job to carry on the momentum that Legere kicked off during his time in the hot seat.
“I hired Mike in 2012 and I have great confidence in him. I have mentored him as he took on increasingly broad responsibilities, and he is absolutely the right choice as T-Mobile’s next CEO,” said Legere. “Mike is well prepared to lead T-Mobile into the future. He has a deep understanding of where T-Mobile has been and where it needs to go to remain the most innovative company in the industry."
Last week it was reported that Legere would leave T-Mobile to become CEO of embattled real estate company WeWork. However, he shot down those rumors at the time, stating that he had no plans to leave T-Mobile and that "I want to be clear, I was never having discussions to run WeWork."
