MTS chief operating officer Popovsky leaving for Vimpelcom
MOSCOW. May 30 (Interfax) - Alexander Popovsky, the chief operating officer at Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) , is leaving the company for "big three" competitor Vimpelcom, the business daily Kommersant reported, citing sources.
At Vimpelcom, Popovsky will serve as executive vice president for retail business development.
The appointment might be announced on June 17. No contract has been signed pending the completion of out-processing procedures, Kommersant said.
MTS spokeswoman Yelena Kokhanovskaya confirmed to Interfax that Popovsky planned to leave the company but did not provide details.
Vimpelcom has not confirmed the report.
A source close to Vimpelcom confirmed to Interfax that Popovsky was expected to join the company effective June 17. The actual date will depend on issues connected with his departure from MTS.
Popovsy has been at MTS since April 2001, when he was head of the affiliate in Kirov. He was director of the Volga-North-West macro-region from July 2004 to August 2007 and then, until August 2008, the head of the South macro-region, after which he was appointed director of the MTS Russia business unit. He has been COO of the company since 2011.
In fact, for the last two years Popovsky has not been directly engaged in operational issues. Instead he has been in charge of the technical block and purchases, a source in MTS management told Interfax. The company will not name a new COO to replace Popovsky, the source said. The technical block will continue to be led by Andrei Ushatsky, the chief technology officer, and purchases by Valery Shorzhin, the head of procurement management.
Vimpelcom does not currently have an executive vice president for retail business development. A source close to Vimpelcom's owners said the operator plans to alter the structure of management, separating out the B2C segment into a separate division. "The company has been considering the idea of shifting to a segmental organizational structure, such as the one at Italian Wind [a mobile operator that, like Vimpelcom, is controlled by Vimpelcom Ltd]. That model was planned for introduction this spring. The idea involves separating out individual retail business development blocks analogous to the corporate business development block," the source said. The new structure would make it possible to centralize management of the marketing and sales functions, he said.
Vimpelcom's only segmental business unit led by an executive at the vice presidential level is currently B2B (headed by Andrei Patoka).
Kommersant's sources had no information concerning how the change in the structure of Vimpelcom's retail business development might affect the positions of Sergei Rubtsov (vice president for sales and services) and Olga Turishcheva (vice president for marketing and business development).