- Verizon made Alfonso Villanueva’s Consumer chief role official after he served in the job on an interim basis since February
- Villanueva stepped in after Sowmyanarayan Sampath left Verizon’s Consumer group
- CEO Dan Schulman praised the Consumer team’s momentum and pointed to the value proposition launch as a sign of its customer-focused strategy
Verizon made it official today: Alfonso Villanueva is executive vice president of the Consumer division, a role in which he’s been serving on an interim basis since February.
Villanueva initially took over the Consumer group when Sowmyanarayan Sampath announced he was leaving the company.
Verizon CEO Dan Schulman’s work with Villanueva dates back to their days at PayPal, where Schulman served as CEO and Villanueva was EVP of Strategy, Corporate Development and Data Science. Villanueva gets credit for shaping PayPal’s strategic roadmap, leading M&A activities and expanding its data and analytics capabilities.
Since taking on his role, Villanueva has made a number of senior hires and promotions across the Consumer organization, reinforcing the team's capacity to execute on the company's transformation agenda, according to an email Schulman sent to employees today.
“The Consumer team has been playing to win, and we see that in our results and from feedback from our customers. The launch of our new value proposition is a perfect example of being bold and customer focused,” Schulman said.
Villanueva will continue to serve as Verizon’s chief transformation officer.
Schulman certainly has wasted no time shaking things up at Verizon. Shortly after he became CEO, Verizon announced a record number of layoffs – 13,000 jobs. Earlier this month, the company said it would be selling 274 company-owned stores in a move that will remove 3,000 jobs from its payroll and cut 500 corporate positions.
Sampath to head Zayo
As for Sampath, he was widely viewed as next in line for the CEO role at Verizon but that changed last year when Schulman left his post as independent director and became CEO in October, replacing Hans Vestgerg.
Sampath recently landed on his feet at Zayo, a mid- and long-haul fiber company where he will be CEO starting in September after the retirement of current CEO Steve Smith.
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