Clearwire has elected wireless industry veteran John Stanton as chairman of the board.

Stanton replaces Clearwire founder Craig McCaw, who resigned from his post as chairman of the board of directors on Dec. 31, 2010.

Stanton is a wireless industry veteran who was CEO of Western Wireless before it was acquired by Alltel in 2005 and served as chairman and CEO of VoiceStream Wireless, which later became T-Mobile USA.

Former Clearwire co-chairman and CEO Ben Wolff was appointed as a director of the company following McCaw’s resignation and will continue to serve with Stanton on the company’s board of directors along with William Blessing, Mufit Cinali, Jose Collazo, Peter Currie, Hossein Eslambolchi, Dennis Hersch, Frank Ianna, Brian McAndrews, Bill Morrow, Theodore Schell and Arvind Sodhani.

McCaw’s resignation was not triggered by any disagreements over the company’s operations, policies or practices, Clearwire said. His departure came amid Clearwire’s worsening financial woes, which prompted the company to raise more than $1.33 in debt financing.