Wind Mobile is replacing its CEO with another leader experienced in the arena of regional wireless carriers.
Alek Krstajic, who led Public Mobile as CEO before it was purchased by Telus (TSX:T) in 2013, is taking over the top job from Pietro Cordova.
Wind Mobile’s former majority shareholder, Vimpelcom, appointed Cordova to help with the transition after a Canadian-led consortium bought a majority stake in the wireless provider last summer. Cordova will return to work at Vimpelcom.
He replaced founder Tony Lacavera as CEO last fall, meaning Krstajic will be the third person to lead the company in just a few months.
Lacavera, meanwhile, is stepping down as chairman of the board but will retain his ownership stake in Wind. His investment company, Globalive, led the consortium that bought the ownership stake from Vimpelcom.
Rob MacLellan, chairman of Northleaf Capital Partners, is replacing Lacavera as chairman.
Wind is also appointing two more boardmembers: U.S.-based T-Mobile vice-president David Carey and Telecom Ventures principal Hamid Akhavan.
In a February wireless spectrum auction in Ottawa, Wind Mobile placed the minimum bid of $56 million to buy licences in B.C., Alberta and Ontario for AWS-3 spectrum. The AWS-3 spectrum would allow the provider to boost the speed and reliability of its network.
After it was revealed in March that Wind won the AWS-3 licences when no other bidders emerged, Lacavera told Business in Vanvouver the company would need another $300-400 million in funding to pay for the infrastructure to deploy AWS-3.
