T-Mobile CEO John Legere has become one of the most recognizable figures in the wireless industry, but next year he's officially stepping down from his position.
Legere will step down as T-Mo CEO when his contract ends on April 30, 2020. Following him will be Mike Sievert, who will become the new T-Mobile CEO on May 1, 2020. Legere will remain a member of T-Mobile's board of directors.
John Legere joined T-Mobile as CEO in 2012. In the seven years since then, he's unveiled several Un-carrier moves, which have often included major new features for T-Mobile customers or changes to T-Mo rate plans. Some examples of T-Mobile Un-carrier moves include Simple Choice, which brought the end of contracts; Music Freedom, which exempted music streaming services from counting against a customer's data usage; and Mobile Without Borders, allowing customers to avoid roaming charges while in Mexico and Canada.
Mike Sievert has been with T-Mobile since 2012 when he was hired as Chief Marketing Officer. He became Chief Operating Officer in 2015, and then joined the board of directors and was named president of T-Mobile in 2018.
Mike Sievert has promised that the "Un-carrier culture" of T-Mobile won't change just because John Legere is stepping down as its CEO. Legere has become known as an outspoken, ostentatious leader who isn't afraid to swear and call out his competitors. While Sievert isn't exactly an always-serious, suit-wearing exec, he's definitely not as brash as Legere, and so it'll be interesting to see what T-Mobile is like under his lead.
Considering what he's done for T-Mobile, turning it from a struggling fourth place carrier in the U.S. into a much more competitive company, it's likely that John Legere will be in high demand after he steps down as T-Mo's CEO. He's not yet saying where he might end up next, but Legere did promise that he's "not retiring", so we could definitely seem him leading another company at some point in the future.
Legere also touched briefly on the recent rumors that he could become the next WeWork CEO, saying that he was "never having discussions to run WeWork."
In other T-Mobile news, the carrier confirmed today that it has extended the contract of CFO Braxton Carter through July 1, 2020 so that he can help with the transition to Mike Sievert as the new T-Mobile CEO. Also announced today is that Neville Ray, T-Mo's current CTO, has been given the title of President of Technology for T-Mobile.
