Good morning. Having met many leaders, I’ve found two qualities that distinguish those who stand out: curiosity and the courage to make bold decisions. They look for opportunities to learn and have a sense of mission in what they do. Two people who come to mind are former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman and Oscar Health CEO Mark Bertolini, both of whom now have new roles at Verizon.
Schulman yesterday became Verizon’s new CEO, while Bertolini was elected board chair. Former CEO Hans Vestberg will stay on as a special advisor to focus on integrating the $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications. One former colleague, Denise Leonhard (who is now Zelle CEO), credits Schulman with creating a culture of fun and shared mission that enabled PayPal to turn around. I think of Dan as a leader who will stop to engage in debate on the streets of Davos and one who’s as likely to be found asking questions from the audience as sharing ideas from the stage. While best known for his achievements during his 9-year tenure as CEO of PayPal, he comes to Verizon with the experience of having been the founding CEO of Virgin Mobile and he worked almost two decades at AT&T.
I first met Bertolini when he was CEO of Aetna, where he pioneered the use of digital health tools and raised the minimum wage by 33%. In his two-plus years as CEO of Oscar Health, he’s driven strong growth in membership, share price, net promoter scores and revenue, though not yet profits. After spending his first 10 weeks with a different team every day, he told co-founder Josh Kushner that “I’ve broken everything here that’s been broken at Oscar at least twice myself in my career. I could walk in and say, ‘you do this, you do this,’ but I don’t think I would have garnered a lot of support.”
I mention Bertolini because there’s another prerequisite for success in the top job: Having a strong relationship with one’s board—something Schulman no doubt appreciates having served on Verizon’s board since 2018. Verizon’s stock dropped 5% yesterday, while other telecom rivals dipped, too. That could signal that investors are unnerved by the sudden leadership transition, or worried about industry challenges ahead. It certainly shows they want to see a strong and cohesive vision for Verizon to win from here.
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Diane Brady