Sprint (NYSE: S) named one of its top executives, Jaime Jones, as area president of the South as part of the carrier's shift to a regional sales organization. Sprint also named industry veteran Annette Jacobs as president of the Pacific Northwest region, part of its larger West region.
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Last week, Sprint announced that it going to shake up its sales organization and move to a model in which it has four regions and sales teams focused on 19 key markets as opposed to focusing on different types of customers like postpaid and prepaid. The Northeast region will be headquartered in New York, the South in Atlanta, the Central region in Chicago and the west region Los Angeles. Sprint has not yet named its other three regional presidents.
According to a map of Sprint's new regional structure, the 19 markets Sprint intends to focus on are Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
Jones, who is currently president of the postpaid and general business organization for Sprint, will remain in that role, in addition to taking on his new responsibilities. He currently oversees consumer and general business sales strategy and distribution, sales and operations of more than 3,000 company-owned and indirect partner-owned stores, national retail, telesales and web sales channels.
As head of the South region, Jones will be responsible for sales strategy, network oversight, customer service, marketing communications and general operations supporting the full portfolio of Sprint products and services, from enterprise to consumer across 10 Southern states and Central Texas. The South geographic area covers Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Central Texas. It includes more than 700 retail stores and employs approximately 10,000 people spanning sales, customer care, operations, network, finance, legal, IT and marketing.
Jones will continue reporting to Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure and will remain in his current position until the new regional structure is completely rolled out next year.
"Our new regional structure puts us closer to our customers, enabling us to serve them even better in 19 of our most important markets," Claure said in a statement. "Jaime has done an incredible job leading Sprint's postpaid business and that's why I'm confident that his presence in the South will help us win across that region."
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Meanwhile, Jacobs will be responsible for Sprint's business in Washington state and Oregon. The West geographic area covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, West Texas and Wyoming. It encompasses nearly 700 retail stores and employs approximately 7,300 employees.
"The Pacific Northwest is a booming technology hub and connectivity is key to economic and civic growth," Jacobs said in a statement, which also included words of support from Claure. "I'm excited to lead Sprint in a more active role in these markets, responding to the regional trends, preferences, and the unique demands of our local customers."
Jacobs joins Sprint from Newport Board Group, where she was managing director Northwest. Previously, she was the president of the West Area at Cricket Wireless, now owned by AT&T (NYSE: T). She has also held senior leadership roles at Qwest, Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) and GTE Wireless. Jacobs also served six years as a director for Alaska Communications Systems.
The shift to the regional structure is part of a major overhaul Sprint is making to its entire organization. Sprint plans to cut as much as $2 billion in operating costs in the next few months and Sprint Chairman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has said that will involve "thousands" of job cuts. Claure has said the cuts will be painful but necessary.
"We haven't identified a number for reductions in jobs," Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton told FierceWireless. "We're in the middle of a process to identify areas across the company where we can reduce costs and unfortunately that will include jobs but a final decision has not yet been made."
For more:
- see these two separate Sprint releases
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