Alcatel-Lucent didn’t waste any time replacing CEO Patricia Russo and Chairman Serge Tchuruk, who both turned in their resignations last month.
According to the New York Times, Philippe Camus, former CEO of European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, will take over as non-executive chairman, and Ben Verwaayen, former CEO of British Telecom and a former vice chairman of Lucent Technologies’ management board, was appointed CEO.
Russo and Tchuruk took over the helm of Alcatel-Lucent, the merger of Paris-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, two years ago. Although initially hailed as a smart move, the economy and mixing corporate cultures soon created challenges the company couldn’t quickly adapt to.
Alcatel-Lucent reportedly hasn’t produced a quarterly profit in more than 2 years and it has lost about $7 billion since the merger.