Former nTelos CEO Jim Hyde is set to take the reins of Sprint’s prepaid division following the departure of Dow Draper, the carrier said Wednesday.
In his new role at Sprint, Hyde will develop and drive the prepaid strategy and business across the Boost Mobile and Sprint Prepaid platforms and the legacy Virgin Mobile business. He will also manage relationships with Sprint’s Wholesale and Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) customers.
Prior to coming to Sprint, Hyde served as CEO, president and director of nTelos and Lumos Networks. Hyde also served as CEO and managing director of T-Mobile UK.
Sprint CEO called Hyde a “visionary leader with a proven track record of successfully transforming start-ups and multibillion-dollar international companies,” and said he was “confident that Jim will accomplish a great deal with our prepaid brands.”
The addition of Hyde marks the latest high-profile hire for Sprint. Over the past several months, the carrier has lifted three former executives from rival carriers, including two from Verizon and one from AT&T.
Earlier this month, Sprint announced the hire of 15-year AT&T veteran Nelly Pitocco as its new vice president of Enterprise Sales. In April, Sprint also managed to poach two former regional executives – Pat Devlin and Mariano Legaz – from Verizon as its new president of the Northeast Area and chief procurement officer, respectively.
The shift also follows 264,000 net prepaid losses for Sprint in its fourth fiscal quarter 2015, ended in March. The carrier posted 1.3 million net prepaid losses for the full fiscal year 2015.
Draper, who formerly headed the prepaid division, was recently selected to serve as CEO of Sprint’s Virgin Mobile USA brand. In his new position, Draper will focus brand evolution to launch new services in new market segments, Sprint said.
“(Draper) and his team are charged with transforming the Virgin brand into a disruptive force in the wireless industry and align it more closely with the iconic global Virgin brand,” Claure said.
Draper previously served as president of Sprint’s Wholesale & Prepaid Services, expanding the contract-free business to keep the company’s Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Sprint Prepaid brands competitive, Sprint said. From 2014 on, Draper also had charge of Sprint’s wholesale business.
On Wednesday, Sprint also announced the formal opening of its new South Central Region headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas. The freshly renovated 5,000-square-foot space will house regional offices for consumer and business sales, marketing, and finance space, Sprint said.