Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure has announced the departure of Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Hallock, the executive responsible for Sprint’s much-maligned Framily plans and ensuing ad campaign.
“Over the past several weeks, all direct reports of the CEO had discussions with Marcelo Claure and were given the opportunity to express their desire to stay with the new Sprint or pursue opportunities outside the company. Based on personal decisions Jeff Hallock has elected to leave the company,” a Sprint spokeswoman said via emailed comment.
The Wall Street Journal got its hands on an internal memo in which Claure announced Hallock and two other senior Sprint executives would be leaving the company. Claure also outlined the executives who will be part of his core leadership teams, including two newly appointed positions: chief experience officer and chief procurement officer.
On Monday, Sprint announced it was Douglas Michelman, former communications officer for Visa, to serve as senior vice president of corporate communications and corporate social responsibility.
Sprint’s Framily plans, which promised a sliding scale pricing approach and the ability to add both family members and friends to existing plans, were rolled out at the beginning of the year. The name—which T-Mobile CEO John Legere repeatedly mocked on Twitter—and the plan structure were retired in favor of Family Share packs, mirroring the shared data plans offered by Sprint’s biggest competitors.
Sprint’s reshuffling of its executive team comes shortly after Claure announced the struggling carrier would be making another 2,000 job cuts by the end of the year. Claure expects the layoffs will knock $1.5 billion off of Sprint’s budget.
Claure’s priorities since taking over this summer for former CEO Dan Hesse, have been to create cost efficiency for the Sprint while aggressively competing with AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon as Sprint works to catch up on LTE network speed and coverage.
But it appears it will be an uphill battle for Sprint’s new CEO. In the first financial quarter under Claure, Sprint continued to post losses, giving up a net 272,000 postpaid subscribers and recording an operating loss of $192 million.
