[Posted on May 7, 2008 - 3:48 PM]
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Benjamin Wolff's title may not be changing, but he's getting one heck of a promotion. As CEO of Clearwire, he headed a company valued at $3.9 billion before its merger with Sprint Nextel Corp., announced Wednesday. After the merger, he'll be at the helm of a company with a market capitalization of $14.5 billion, backing from some of the biggest names in technology, including Intel Corp. and Google Inc., and ambitious plans to stretch a super speedy wireless network from coast to coast.Wolff joined Clearwire in 2004 as executive vice president and has served in the Steve Ballmer role to Clearwire founder Craig McCaw's Bill Gates ever since. In 2005, Wolff was promoted to co-president and chief strategy officer, then in 2006, to co-chief executive officer and finally in 2007, to sole CEO. He also serves on the board of ICO Global Communications, the mobile satellite services operator backed by McCaw, and is president of McCaw's investment firms, Eagle River Investments LLC, Eagle River Holdings LLC and Eagle River Inc.
Wolff's early career was as an M&A attorney with Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, where he represented clients, such as Allied Signal, Eagle River, Intel and Starbucks Coffee Company in various corporate and transactional matters.
McCaw will serve as chair of Clearwire's new 13-member board, and Sprint Nextel's current chief technology officer Barry West will act as president. -- Mary Kathleen Flynn
For more on the alliance between Clearwire and Sprint Nextel see May 7 story from TheDeal.com and May 7 post from PaidContent.org
