Gracia to replace Charles Wunsch who will leave the company in January, 2016
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), November 23, 2015 – Jorge Gracia, 50, will join Sprint (NYSE:S, news, filings) as senior vice president and general counsel effective January 2, 2016. Gracia replaces Charles Wunsch, who held the position since 2008 and will leave Sprint January 29, 2016, after ensuring a smooth transition to Gracia.
As a member of the Sprint leadership team, Gracia will be the principal in-house lawyer for Sprint providing advice and counsel on issues of overarching importance to Sprint and will assist in setting and implementing the company’s overall strategic direction. He will report to CEO Marcelo Claure.
“Jorge is an accomplished attorney and a seasoned business strategist,” Claure said. “He is experienced in building high-performing teams and tenaciously leading them to pursue resolution to complex issues. Those skills are a perfect fit for Sprint and I am confident he will be a great addition to our team leading Sprint’s transformation.”
Gracia has 25 years’ experience in international corporate law, most recently with Samsung Electronics America, Inc., where he served as senior vice president and general counsel since 2013. He previously spent 17 years at Alcatel-Lucent where he held a series of positions, each with increasing responsibility. He last served as deputy general counsel – global commercial law, in which Gracia led a team of approximately 200 professionals supporting all commercial matters, including serving as general counsel for global sales and marketing, the team responsible for worldwide revenue-generating activities.
“The opportunity to work alongside Marcelo and Sprint’s leaders to turn the company around offers a perfect combination of challenge and reward, and is one I look forward to immensely,” Gracia said. “With Sprint’s well-known brand, enviable assets and strong leadership, I am convinced we have the key elements to be successful.”
Among the varied roles Gracia held during his 17 years at Alcatel-Lucent, he served as corporate counsel for the company’s two largest business teams, SBC and Bell South, both now part of AT&T, and held roles as law vice president for various business functions including Lucent’s Worldwide Services Group. He was also general counsel, North America, following Lucent’s merger with Alcatel, in which he handled all legal aspects of telecommunications infrastructure and high-technology transactions for the company’s largest revenue-generating region.
Gracia received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Florida International University and earned a juris doctor with honors from the University of Miami School of Law.
Gracia and his family will relocate from New Jersey to Kansas City.
About Sprint:
Sprint (NYSE: S) is a communications services company that creates more and better ways to connect its customers to the things they care about most. Sprint served more than 57 million connections as of June 30, 2015 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; leading no-contract brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Sprint has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North America for the past five years. You can learn more and visit Sprint atwww.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.
View source version on businesswire.com:http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151123006238/en/
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