Sprint announces COO, CTO and CFO to focus on network

Sprint has appointed Gunther Ottendorfer as chief operating officer – technology, John Saw as chief technology officer, and Tarek Robbiati as chief financial officer.


The strategy behind the hiring of the senior management team is to improve the telecom network of Sprint in the U.S.

Sprint rival T-Mobile, while reporting the second quarter earnings last week, said it has 58.9 million customers. GSMA Intelligence says Sprint will have 58.3 million users. This means T-Mobile will overtake Sprint in the wireless subscription race. Sprint will officially announce its financial result on 4 August.

This will be a celebration time for T-Mobile CEO John Legere, while Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure is trying to re-coup with a series of new appointments.

Sprint COO Gunther Ottendorfer
Ottendorfer previously served as chief technology officer and a board member for Telekom Austria Group and managing director of Optus Singtel in Sydney Australia and worked at Deutsche Telekom for 9 years. He will lead the Technology Office responsible for all network planning and deployment functions, as well as information technology.
Sprint CTO John Saw
John Saw, chief network officer, has been promoted to CTO, reporting to Ottendorfer. Sprint has made significant improvements to its network under Saw’s leadership as chief network officer. Before Sprint acquired Clearwire, Saw was Clearwire’s chief technology officer.

Junichi Miyakawa, technical chief operating officer, will become a senior technical adviser in the Office of the CEO and a liaison between Softbank and Sprint for network strategy.

Robbiati, as the new CFO of Sprint, will play a key role in supporting telecom investments the company is making to build the next generation of its network and introduce innovative approaches that will strengthen its competitive position. Its current CFO, Joseph Euteneuer, will leave the Overland Park, Kansas, company following a transfer of responsibilities.

Ottendorfer, in his capacity leading the Technology Office, will lead the company’s efforts to build on that progress by deploying the next generation of its wireless network. This will capitalize on Sprint’s spectrum portfolio, increasing coverage and capacity by significantly densifying the network.

The SoftBank-promoted company is uniting the Network and Information Technology functions to capture advantages, including greater efficiency in designing, rapidly deploying and scaling the next generation network. Sprint is currently the No. 3 U.S. cellphone carrier behind Verizon and AT&T.

Baburajan K
[email protected]