T-Mobile’s Ray retires, John Saw is named as CTO

T-Mobile’s CEO Mike Sievert yesterday used Facebook to post some top leadership moves at the company (with a lot of exclamation marks).

He wrote:

  • Ulf Ewaldsson is now our new President of Technology – congratulations!
  • John Saw becomes EVP and Chief Technology Officer – congratulations!
  • Neville Ray is taking on a new strategic advisor role as he prepares to retire this fall!
  • Abdul Saad is leaving us to spend time with his family – THANK YOU for all you’ve done! You will never be forgotten at T-Mobile!
  • Mike Simpson is transitioning to Finance and leading an expanded Procurement and Supply chain organization!

For his part, Ray posted on LinkedIn yesterday: “My ride at T-Mobile has been incredible and I can't think of a better time to transition into a new role as president and strategic network advisor to Mike Sievert.”

Ray first announced his retirement in February, saying he planned to retire by this fall, with Ewaldsson set to assume his role.

Ewaldsson joined T-Mobile four years ago as SVP, Technology Transformation, reporting to Ray. He was later promoted to EVP and chief network officer. He previously had been with Ericsson for nearly 30 years, including as a senior adviser to Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm.

T-Mobile had previously said that Chief Technology Officer Abdul Saad and EVP Advanced and Emerging Technologies John Saw would remain in their roles, reporting to Ewaldsson after the transition.

But now, Saad is out, and Saw has been elevated to the CTO role.

Saw has had a long career in wireless. He was the second employee of Clearwire when he joined that company in 2003, and he stitched together 2.5 GHz into a prized swath of spectrum. He was the CTO of Sprint when the company was purchased by T-Mobile in April 2020. Since then, he’s been acting as executive vice president of Advanced and Emerging Technologies.