Shocker after less than three years at the helm
TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced this morning that president and CEO Guy Laurence will step down, effective immediately. No reasons were given for his departure.
It also announced that it is Rogers intention to hire former Telus CEO Joseph Natale as president and CEO as soon as he is in a position to join Rogers. During the interim, board chair Alan Horn will act as president and CEO.
"We have appreciated Guy's leadership over the last three years," said Edward Rogers, deputy chairman, Rogers Communications, in a press release. "He has moved the company forward re-establishing growth, introducing innovative programs like Roam Like Home, while getting the company ready for its next phase of growth. On behalf of the Rogers family and the board, I'd like to thank Guy for his competitive spirit and many contributions."
A highly respected executive, Natale is well known to the Canadian telecommunications industry, bringing many years of experience to the company. He was most recently President and CEO of TELUS Corporation where he held progressively senior executive roles since joining that company in 2003. Natale left Telus in August of 2015 when Darren Entwistle took the CEO job back. If Natale is under a two-year non-compete contract with Telus (which is pretty standard for executives of his position), he won't be able to take over at Rogers until August of 2017.
"Following the transition, the board will look to Joe to take the company forward and continue the momentum we've established in the past couple of years," said Alan Horn, chairman, Rogers Communications, in the release. "Joe is a proven executive who has deep experience delivering strong financial results in a highly competitive and complex industry. His focus on the customer experience and demonstrated expertise delivering operational success makes him well suited to lead Rogers through the challenges and opportunities ahead."
"During the transition, it's business as usual," said Horn. "We have a strong management team that will continue to execute the plan and build on the momentum we have established as we head into the fourth quarter."
This move comes as rather a shock, given Laurence spoke to reporters just last week about the company's most recent product launch and gave no indication that his time was shortly going to be up at Rogers. He even told reporters he just recently got his permanent resident status in Canada.
More to come on this.
