Dive Brief:
- T-Mobile updated its technology leadership with two internal promotions, according to a LinkedIn post from CEO Mike Sievert Tuesday. The company confirmed the role changes in an email to CIO Dive.
- EVP and Chief Network Officer Ulf Ewaldsson became president of technology and John Saw, formerly EVP of advanced and emerging technologies at the company, took on the role of CTO.
- Ewaldsson replaced Neville Ray, who will pivot to an advisory role through the fall as president and strategic network advisor to the CEO. Saw took over for departing CTO Abdul Saad, who retired after 19 years with the company to spend more time with his family, Sievert said in his post.
Dive Insight:
T-Mobile put the wheels in motion for a tech leadership transition earlier this year, when it announced Ray’s imminent retirement and tapped Ewaldsson to lead its technology team.
“This has been a thoughtfully planned succession,” Sievert said in the February announcement. “Our goal is always to build a strong bench of leaders who are ready to fill key positions when they’re needed, and this is a perfect example of that approach.”
T-Mobile built an extensive 5G network under Ray's leadership, who served as president of technology from 2019 to 2023. Prior to that, he was the telecom company’s CTO for nearly a decade.
Saw joined T-Mobile when it acquired Sprint in 2020. He served as chief network officer and later CTO at Sprint between 2013 and 2020. Following the acquisition, Saw joined T-Mobile’s technology team as EVP.
The wireless network provider’s 5G network covers 325 million users in the U.S. and over 90% of U.S. highway miles.
T-Mobile is in the midst of recovery from the latest in a series of breaches. The breach announced in January marked the eighth publicly acknowledged data breach at T-Mobile since 2018, which led experts to question its security culture.
For Sievert, T-Mobile’s security investments showed up and allowed it to quickly respond to the compromise.
“While I’m disappointed that the criminal actor was able to obtain any customer information, we are confident that our aggressive cybersecurity plan, working with the support of some of the world’s experts, will allow us to achieve our goal of becoming second to none in this area,” Sievert said during a Q4 earnings call in February.
