Do you have Verizon? If you never heard of it or live under a rock, Verizon is a well-known brand of telecommunications that is used all over the world by many countries.
But, how much do you know of the history and the CEO of Verizon? Perhaps there is a lesson in there to be learned? This article will be about the CEO of Verizon and its impact on the world. Let’s get started!
The Founding of Verizon
Before it was known as Verizon, the telecommunications company went by Bell Atlantic when it was formed in 1984. This was during the break up of the Bell System, a group of telecommunication businesses under the Bell Telephone Company. Each of these companies, seven in total, would then become a Regional Bell Operating Company or RBOC. They would be known as “Baby Bells” and their first headquarters would be the city of Philadelphia.
Later in 1997, Bell Atlantic would set up shop in New York and other East Coast states by merging with another Baby Bell called NYNEX. Bell Atlantic survived and moved its operations to the old NYNEX headquarters in New York City.
A few years later, Bel Atlantic would get GTE, a telecommunications company that had access to nearly the entire country. From that, they named the business Verizon by combing the Latin world veritas (truth) and horizon.
The CEO of Verizon
Now you probably are still wondering who the CEO of Verizon is and it is not the original founder of the company. The current CEO is Hans Vestberg of Hudiksvall, Sweden. He graduated with a degree in Business Administration and Economics in the early 90s.
He first started at Ericsson Cables in his hometown and worked there for a quarter of a century. During this time, he would have a leadership role that extended to other countries such as Brazil, China, Mexico, and the United States. He later was the CFO for the company’s offices in Brazil and later North America. Later, he became the CEO of Ericsson, the first without an engineering degree in 2010. However, he would be removed just five years later due to poor performance by Ericsson.
Vestberg then joined Verizon as the chief technology officer as well as executive vice president in 2017. He would oversee the fiber network and the 5G network. In the summer of 2018, he would be announced as the new CEO.
Since then, he and a group of former shareholders have been accused of having a massive executive compensation plan and it was seen as boardroom misconduct.
Verizon Today
Verizon is the largest wireless carrier in the country and has over 140 million subscribers. The business makes around $137 billion in profit. In 2015, they bought Yahoo and have it as a subsidiary. However, in 2021, they sold Yahoo and AOL to Apollo Global GOvernment and retained a 10% stake. Verizon also bought BlueJeans, a type of videoconference service.
Verizon also takes part in philanthropy. Every year they donate over $70 million to causes for education, energy management, and domestic violence prevention. In 2019, they began plans to invest more in renewable energy such as solar and wind.
Verizon is also not free of controversy. For instance, Verizon has lobbied to make changes to the FCC’s regulations that would benefit them more. They failed and have limited their services have limited streaming services to a different speed. This is because Verizon is the only telecommunication company in the United States that works on a different wavelength.
They have also had poor reviews regarding deceptive advertisement, privacy, and security concerns.
What Can We Learn from the CEO?
As you saw above you got a rundown of the history of Verizon and its CEO. It is clear that there are some things that need to be addressed. First, Vestberg can be described as a visionary dreamer who is steadfast in his goals, but because of his cost-cutting attempts and acquisitions, he was pushed out. While we can agree that maybe he isn’t the best businessman, we know that he is a determined and hardworking person.
He was at Verizon for a year and had helped oversee the fiber and the 5G networks. Within a year he was the CEO.
Conclusion
There is a certain amount of admiralty we can have for CEO Vestberg. But, he and Verizon have made mistakes in the past. How you feel about them is up to you. We can take what others have done before us and gain some insight to ensure that we don’t face similar issues.
But, by being a hard-working individual, maybe you can see yourself as a CEO of a business one day!
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