Philipp Humm to rule over northern and central Europe—at least for Vodafone

[Brendan Hugo]

Former T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm is taking over the top post for Vodafone in northern and central Europe, which means he’ll be in charge of Vodafone’s operations in Germany, Britain, Turkey, the Czech Republic, and others. For those not in the know, Philipp Humm was T-Mobile USA’s CEO. That is, he was until he suddenly resigned yesterday. T-Mobile’s public statement was that Humm was making the move to gain family time, but in a letter to employees by the CEO of Deutsche Telekom—T-Mobile’s parent company—it was stated that Humm was leaving to join a competitor. Today Reuters reports that he is set to take over Vodafone’s newly-created northern and central Europe division.

Long story short, Vodafone is now two companies working together, one covering northern and central Europe, the other covering southern Europe. Ramifications for customers should be few and far between. Paolo Bertoluzzo, CEO of Vodafone Italy, will take over for southern Europe, which includes Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece.

"Our new regional structure will underpin our strategy focused on meeting our customers' long-term needs, and Paolo and Philipp will be strong additions to the Vodafone group executive committee," Vittorio Colao said in a statement.

This essentially works out as a great deal for everyone except T-Mobile, who is currently and unexpectedly without a CEO—COO Jim Alling is filling in for now—Humm will start his new gig on October 1. So, the guy gets to move home, have a better—depending on your point of view—position, and gets summer off? I can’t say that I blame him, especially after the T-Mobile merger debacle. In fact, I would’ve been surprised had T-Mobile not changed things up within the next year anyway.

I am currently of the opinion that T-Mobile USA is hurting badly. While I don’t think it stands to fail anytime soon, I do think that it stands to lose even more ground to the big three—a strange turn-around as not too long ago it was looking like Sprint was going to be the one left in the dust.

What do you all think? Was this a fair move, considering that there was somewhat of a bull’s-eye on Humm’s head as it was? Or was this him jumping off—what he believes to be—a sinking ship?

[Reuters via Slash Gear]

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[The DarkSide]

Ummm,............WHO???