Manon Brouillette is headed out the door as the head of Verizon’s consumer business, after less than a year on the job
Verizon announced Monday the departure of Manon Brouillette, the CEO of Verizon Business. Her duties have been assumed by Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, the company said in a statement.
“We thank Manon for her service to our customers and her contribution to Verizon Consumer Group. My immediate focus for the Consumer Group will be on driving a closer consistency between the top quality network product we’re bringing to market and the operational results we’re producing,” said Vestberg.
Verizon Consumer Group was formed in 2019 as an effort to address the rapidly changing consumer wireless market in the United States. Ronan Dunne, the first CEO of Verizon’s consumer business unit, told investors at the time that Verizon had realigned itself into consumer and business units to adopt a service-based approach focusing on “choice, quality and experience.”
Dunne said, “We see the opportunity to bring the best of two networks and a common architecture together to give customers choice. And therefore, that opportunity to really face out to consumers as a single unit, bringing the best of the best to them, rather than to be focused on traditional divisions, which were technology-based rather than solution or service-based.”
With a two decade long career in telecom, Brouillette came to Verizon in June 2021, after running Canadian telco and Quebecor Media business unit Vidéotron from 2013 to 2019. Brouillette served as COO and Deputy CEO of Verizon Consumer Group from June 2021 to January, reporting to Dunne, then assumed the top job following Dunne’s departure. Her promotion to CEO was announced in November of last year, with her officially taking the reins in January.
Verizon’s consumer business unit has faced a tough row to hoe in 2022. Increased competition from AT&T and T-Mobile US has driven postpaid customers away from Verizon, which has reported 439,000 fewer subscribers in its last three reported quarters.
The news of Brouillette’s departure follows other executive changes at Verizon. In October, the company rearranged its Verizon Business unit executive structure under new CEO Sowmyanarayan Sampath, following Tami Erwin’s departure.
Verizon Consumer’s laggard performance notwithstanding, the company proceeds its 5G rollout apace. At the same time as Brouillette’s departure was announced, Verizon noted that its 5G midband service now reaches more than 175 million Americans. The company said that its rollout of C-Band services is 13 months ahead of its original schedule. The 175 million milestone is about a month ahead of where Verizon thought it would be, the company said. Verizon also said that it would add more spectrum to its C-Band rollout to improve speed and capacity.
“In addition to providing greater coverage, especially in rural and suburban areas, Verizon will also enhance capacity by activating 100 MHz of C-Band spectrum in many markets, a significant step up from the 60 MHz of spectrum available when deployment first began. Once all of its licensed spectrum is made available, Verizon will have up to 200 MHz of C-Band spectrum deployed in many markets, which will provide exceptional speed and capacity,” said Verizon.
