T-Cell’s longest-tenured Un-carrier architect simply Un-carriered himself.
Mike Katz, who began promoting VoiceStream telephones at Circuit Metropolis 28 years in the past and rose to assist T-Cell go from an also-ran into the wi-fi business’s most formidable competitor, is leaving the Bellevue, Wash.-based provider as a part of a broader government reshuffling beneath CEO Srini Gopalan, who took the helm in November.
Katz, T-Cell’s chief enterprise and product officer, is stepping away to pursue “new skilled pursuits,” the corporate mentioned in a press launch and SEC submitting. The corporate didn’t present specifics. We’ve contacted Katz for extra on his plans.
He’ll stay as a strategic advisor by way of December 2026.
His duties are being break up 3 ways:
- Chris Sambar, a wi-fi business veteran who spent twenty years at rival AT&T and most just lately served as COO of Public Storage, will be a part of as chief enterprise officer no later than Oct. 14, overseeing T-Cell’s SMB, enterprise and authorities companies.
- André Almeida is shifting into an expanded function as chief advertising, model and broadband officer.
- CTO John Noticed‘s purview will develop to incorporate product engineering and cybersecurity.
Katz was named final month to Gov. Bob Ferguson’s newly created Financial Improvement Council, a 26-member panel of enterprise, labor, and tribal leaders. His standing on the council following his departure from T-Cell is unclear.
Over his profession at T-Cell, Katz led the corporate’s enterprise group, the place he helped triple the shopper base, and later oversaw advertising, technique and merchandise, shaping among the provider’s most recognizable model strikes: T-Cell Tuesdays, Magenta Standing, and others.
“We constructed a regional participant right into a nationwide powerhouse, flipped the business on its head with the Un-carrier motion, pulled off the Dash merger, and pushed into broadband and enterprise,” Katz mentioned in a LinkedIn put up saying his departure.
Gopalan praised Katz within the press launch, calling him “a driving power of so most of the daring strikes which have reworked our firm and our business.”
Sambar’s hiring is a notable transfer for T-Cell, which constructed its Un-carrier model partly by positioning itself because the scrappy different to business giants AT&T and Verizon. At AT&T, Sambar led the buildout of the corporate’s 5G cell community and oversaw the design and deployment of FirstNet, the nationwide public security communications community.
A U.S. Naval Academy graduate who served greater than 20 years within the Navy, Sambar will report on to Gopalan and lead T-Cell’s push into enterprise, authorities, and rising progress areas together with T-Advertisements and bodily AI.
