Daniel Hesse

Daniel Hesse
Hesse at Capitol Hill filing lawsuit to block AT&T T-Mobile merger in 2011.
Born	1953 (age 62–63)
Nationality	USA
Education	University of Notre Dame MIT Sloan School of Management Cornell University Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management
Predecessor	Gary D. Forsee
Successor	Marcelo Claure
Board member of	CTIA Boys and Girls Clubs of America

Daniel R. Hesse (born c. 1953) is the former chief executive officer of Sprint Corporation.^[1] He was also the spokesperson, as the voice in Sprint's "Simply Everything" commercials.

Early life

Hesse's father was a career army officer and he spent his early years going from army base to army base attending 8 different schools between kindergarten in Italy before graduating Stuttgart American High School.

He received a Bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame in government and liberal studies in 1975;^[2] an MBA from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University in 1977; and master's of science from the MIT Sloan School of Management as a Sloan Fellow in 1989.

In telecommunications

AT&T

He spent 23 years at AT&T where he started out as an intern.

From 1991–1995 he was President and CEO of AT&T Network Systems International based in the Netherlands.

He launched the online division's AT&T Worldnet service in February 1996 which introduced unlimited internet dial up for $20/month as long as you subscribed to AT&T's long distance services.^[3]

In May 1997 he became head of AT&T Wireless.^[3]

Terabeam Corporation

From March 2000 to June 2004 he was CEO and chairman of Terabeam Corporation.^[4]

Embarq Corporation

In June 2005 Hesse joined Sprint and oversaw the spinoff of its landline service – Embarq Corporation.

Sprint

On December 17, 2007 he became CEO of Sprint Nextel.^[5]

During his tenure he appeared in numerous television commercials for the company, filmed in black and white, and created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. The ads were filmed in New York City.

When Hesse took over at Sprint, the company was losing numerous customers. His strategy to stem further losses included improved customer service, an increased emphasis on prepaid cell phones, striking a deal with Apple to sell iPhones and other Apple products, and a 4G presence investment/ownership stake in WiMAX-provider Clearwire. He also started adding retail stores across the nation in an attempt for increased in-person customer service.

On August 6, 2014 Sprint announced that Hesse would be replaced by Marcelo Claure, founder of Brightstar Corporation.^[6]

References

1. "Sprint Press Releases". sprint.com. Retrieved 2014-08-06.
2. "Notre Dame Business Magazine". Nd.edu. Retrieved 2011-01-08.
3. Cauley, Leslie (2008-02-25). "CEO Profile: Sprint's new CEO showed grit from the start". Usatoday.Com. Retrieved 2011-01-08.
4. "Dan Hesse, Ceo, Sprint Nextel". Spoke. 2007-12-18. Retrieved 2011-01-08.
5. Daniel R. Hesse. "Daniel Hesse: Executive Profile & Biography – BusinessWeek". Investing.businessweek.com. Retrieved 2011-01-08.
6. Doug Duvall (2014-08-06). "Sprint Names Marcelo Claure as New President and CEO". newsroom.sprint.com.