Irishman takes helm of America’s biggest mobile operator, Verizon Wireless

3 Aug 2016

Dublin native Ronan Dunne will take the top job at America’s biggest mobile operator Verizon Wireless

Dublin native Ronan Dunne is to leave his role as CEO of O2 in the UK and will take on the mantle of group president of Verizon Wireless.

Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless telecoms operator in the US, with more than 141.4m subscribers.

The company was originally formed as a joint venture between Bell Atlantic and Vodafone.

In 2014, Verizon Communications became sole owner after buying Vodafone’s 45pc stake in the company.

Last week, Verizon acquired Yahoo for $4bn and earlier this week the company acquired Irish vehicle management technology company Fleetmatics for $2.4bn in cash.

Mobile mover and shaker

A graduate of Blackrock College, Dunne is a seasoned business executive who moved to the UK in the 1980s and in 2002 joined O2 as the company’s CFO.

He became CEO of O2 in January 2008 and is also chairman of Tesco Mobile, a joint venture between Telefónica and Tesco.

He is also a non-executive director of the Guardian Media Group.

Two years ago, Telefónica sold its O2 Ireland subsidiary to Hutchison Whampoa, owner of Three, for around €850m.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com