The board of directors of Verizon Communications has promoted COO Lowell McAdam to president and CEO of the company. Ivan Seidenberg will step down from the CEO role at the end of this month, completing a CEO succession plan that has been under way since last year.
Seidenberg has led Verizon since its inception, first as co-CEO in 2000, then as sole chief exec since 2002 and as chairman of the board since 2004. He will remain chairman to ‘facilitate the transition’.
McAdam has been a member of Verizon’s executive leadership team since 2000 and COO over the last 10 months. He was president and CEO of Verizon Wireless until September 2010.
As the company’s head honcho, he will be responsible for all business operations at Verizon, including the strategic direction of its products and technologies.
The company this morning also reported net income of 57 cents per share in Q2 2011, compared with a second-quarter 2010 loss of 42 cents per share, topping estimates.
Verizon’s total operating revenues were $27.5 billion in Q2 2011, an increase of 2.8 percent compared with the same period last year.
Since the company began offering the iPhone in February, Verizon has activated 2.3 million iPhone 4 units and 1.2 million 4G LTE devices.