Rogers Communications Inc.in Toronto.Brent Lewin
Rogers Communications Inc. is naming two different presidents for its consumer telecom business, returning to an older structure that separates its cable and wireless divisions.
The company has been looking for a new president for its largest and most important division since November, when Dirk Woessner returned to his home country to become chief executive of Deutsche Telekom AG’s German operation.
But instead of naming one new leader, Rogers has poached Apple Inc.’s senior Canadian executive, Brent Johnston, to run its wireless operations while interim consumer president Phil Hartling will take over residential services, which includes cable television and internet. Both will report directly to chief executive officer Joe Natale.
The reorganization is a reversion to an older setup after previous CEOs Nadir Mohamed and Guy Laurence integrated the cable and wireless businesses more closely.
The separation of the residential and mobile operations comes as the company sees two “transformational,” but distinct, growth opportunities. There is the move to 5G technology on the wireless side (which will entail much-faster speeds and exponentially more connected devices) and the connected home on the residential side, where telecom providers hope to leverage their internet service to become home operating systems, controlling TV, lights, home security and more.
“To take advantage of these opportunities and continue to meet the needs of our customers into the future, we’re making the right investments in our networks, services and our team,” said Rogers spokeswoman Sarah Schmidt in an e-mail.
Mr. Woessner announced his departure last July, but it still took Rogers until now to replace him, highlighting the challenge of finding senior telecom leaders who know the Canadian market − and want to live here − when most qualified candidates work at rival carriers and tend to have lengthy non-compete clauses.
Mr. Johnston, who was senior managing director at Apple Canada for the past two years, previously spent almost a decade at Rogers rival Telus Corp., where he worked in Toronto alongside Mr. Natale. (The current Rogers CEO was a senior leader at Telus for more than a decade and CEO for a year until 2015 – he started at Rogers in April, 2017.)
“We’re excited to have Brent join our team. He’s a terrific executive − he’s team-oriented with deep industry experience and a proven track record, and he brings a relentless focus on the customer,” Ms. Schmidt said of Mr. Johnston, who starts Monday.
Mr. Hartling has been at Rogers for more than 12 years and has been filling in as head of the previously combined cable and wireless division since Mr. Woessner left.
His new role replaces a job formerly held by Kelly Atkinson, who was executive vice-president of residential services for the past three years. Ms. Atkinson, who came to Rogers from Time Warner Cable, is leaving Rogers as a result of the reorganization.
Rogers is also combining its network and IT teams into one technology division, led by chief technology officer Jorge Fernandes, who joined the company in February. Chief information officer John Hill, who previously reported directly to the CEO, will now report to Mr. Fernandes.