Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) isn’t the same company it was a year ago–in the executive ranks at least. Nearly all of the initial executive team formed after Sprint (NYSE:S) merged its WiMax assets with the wireless ISP has either left the company or has been moved into less-influential roles. The latest head-office casualties announced today are chief strategy officer Scott Richardson, who joined Clearwire from Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) after leading the latter’s highly global WiMax efforts, and chief financial officer David Sach, who joined the company just last January after the Sprint-Clearwire deal closed.
New CEO Bill Morrow, who himself replaced Clearwire’s original CEO Ben Wolff in March, obviously is trying to make the 4G provider his own. Sach is being replaced by Erik Prusch, the former CEO and President of Borland Software, where he was Morrow’s boss. Clearwire will retain Richardson’s expertise and industry influence through an advisory role, but the slot of chief strategy officer will remain unfilled for now. Rather, Morrow has created a new position, president of strategic partnerships and wholesale, which will be filled by Teresa Elder, former CEO of Vodafone Ireland. Morrow is the former CEO of Vodafone Europe.
This isn’t the first shake-up in the executive ranks since Morrow took charge. In May, Morrow revealed three new C-Level appointments, but the most significant move at the time Barry West’s move from chief technology officer to overseeing Clearwire’s international operations. West spearheaded Sprint’s WiMax efforts, and his persistent evangelism for the technology to a large part legitimizated WiMax as a global 4G alternative.
