Industry Veteran Becomes New Sprint CFO

Andrew Davies took up his new role as chief financial officer of Sprint on Monday, bringing a wealth of industry experience to the U.S. mobile operator.

Sprint named Davies as its new CFO last week, announcing that he would replace Michel Combes, who was promoted to chief executive officer in May following the departure of Marcelo Claure for Sprint’s parent company SoftBank. Claure has taken on the positions of chief operating officer at SoftBank Group and CEO of SoftBank Group International, which amongst other things will see him overseeing SoftBank’s investment in Sprint.

Most recently Davies served as group CFO for Veon, a post he left in November. Prior to that he spent over a decade at Vodafone in various positions in Japan, Turkey and India, as well as being CFO of one-time Vodafone subsidiary Verizon Wireless in the U.S.

“Andrew has significant experience in the telecommunications industry here in America and around the world, making him an invaluable addition to Sprint’s leadership team,” said Combes. “He has helped to lead companies through transformational periods and is the perfect fit to strengthen our leadership team for the next phase of our transformation.”

Indeed, Davies’ career history includes a role in the formation of Wind Tre, the Italian mobile operator created through the tie-up between Veon’s Wind and Hutchison’s Tre in late 2016.

He joins Sprint as the company works towards a merger with domestic rival T-Mobile US. Sprint reiterated that it expects that deal to close no later than the first half of next year, subject to the usual regulatory approvals.

Davies reports to Combes, who also spent a number of years at Vodafone and whose own experience in telecoms M&A will stand him in good stead to steer Sprint through the T-Mobile merger. Combes was at the helm of Alcatel-Lucent when the Franco-U.S. firm negotiated its buyout by Nokia in 2015. – Total Telecom