Dan Hesse's leadership was recognized at the Wireless Week 2012 Leadership Awards. Details of the recognition follow. Published May 2012.
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Four years and several ups and downs later, Hesse's efforts to revive Sprint are starting to bear fruit.
"I told you on my first call that our turnaround would be difficult and not quick," Hesse said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call in February. "Although we're far from finished, our progress, nevertheless, has been very significant."
Under Hesse's leadership, the company launched unlimited data plans, forged a WiMAX alliance with Clearwire, bought Virgin Mobile USA, got the all-important iPhone and began the laborious process of phasing out its iDEN network and moving toward LTE.
Hesse’s reign also has been characterized by a number of out-of-the-box initiatives, such as signing up to be the launch partner for Google Wallet, outsourcing management of its network to Ericsson and embarking on a company-wide environmental push ranging from energy-efficient facilities to handset recycling.
Along with those initiatives came much-needed improvements in customer growth, sales and consumer perception of the Sprint brand.
Sprint's net adds during the last three months of 2011 were its best in six years, its customer base reached an all-time high of 55 million and its postpaid net adds marked a 10th consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement.
"Our top line is growing again," Hesse said. "Our customer experience has gone from the worst to arguably the best in the industry, and our once battered brand is strengthening and gaining momentum."