Verizon Announces New CEO

On Oct. 6, 2025, Verizon announced that the board of directors had appointed former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman as the company’s new CEO.

Schulman previously served as CEO of PayPal from 2015 to 2023 and was the founding CEO of Virgin Mobile USA, a joint venture between Britain’s Virgin Group and Sprint, helping to build a prepaid cellphone business. Schulman also spent 18 years working his way up at AT&T, where he eventually became President of Consumer Division.

Schulman replaces Hans Vestberg, who had led the company since 2018.

Verizon said Vestberg will remain on the board of directors until the 2026 annual meeting and will serve as a special advisor through Oct. 4, 2026, to ensure a smooth transition and close the deal to acquire Frontier Communications.

Verizon also announced that Mark Bertolini, the chief executive of Oscar Health and former chief executive of health-insurance company Aetna, would be chairman of the company’s board of directors.

“The Board is thrilled to have Dan as Verizon’s next CEO, and embark on a new chapter of growth and sector leadership,” Bertolini said. “Dan is a seasoned and decisive leader with a unique set of experiences, and a proven record of transformative leadership and operational excellence. He is the right leader to chart Verizon’s next phase of increased customer focus and financial growth.”

Bertolini continued, “Hans Vestberg has been an extraordinary leader for Verizon, leading a new era of network investment and creating an innovative culture. Our company is better for his passion and vision. Having created a network that is unmatched and with the upcoming close of the Frontier transaction, the Board and Hans discussed that now is the right time for a CEO transition. On behalf of the entire Board, we thank Hans for his outstanding service to all of Verizon’s stakeholders.”

At PayPal, Schulman grew the company’s revenue from $8 billion to $30 billion, according to the announcement, and added “hundreds of millions” of new customers for the global payments platform. He has served on Verizon’s board of directors since 2018.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Verizon is making the leadership change as it faces stiff competition from rivals for home internet as well as wireless customers. In July, the company increased its earnings forecast for the year but said it lost lucrative postpaid phone customers for the second consecutive quarter.

Morgan Stanley analysts said that month that while the company’s forecast was encouraging, its shares traded at a discount to many of its peers, “reflecting a more tepid growth outlook” and that the year appeared to be “more challenging than initially thought.”

Verizon earlier this year froze rates for a swath of its customers for three years in a bid to hold on to cellphone users irked by years of price rises. Those moves had bolstered the company’s revenue by raising monthly rates and fees but frustrated some customers.

“I believe in Verizon and its future, and I am honored to be chosen to serve as CEO,” Schulman said. “Verizon is at a critical juncture. We have a clear opportunity to redefine our trajectory, by growing our market share across all segments of the market, while delivering meaningful growth in our key financial metrics. We are going to maximize our value propositions, reduce our cost to serve, and optimize our capital allocation to delight our customers, and deliver sustainable long-term growth for our shareholders. I want to thank Hans for his remarkable leadership and all he has contributed to Verizon. I deeply appreciate his friendship and support in this transition. I look forward to working with our employees, our regulators, our partners, and the Board to do the hard work it takes to regain our leadership in our sector across mobility and broadband.”

Vestberg said: “Over the last eight years, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside some of the most talented and dedicated people in the industry, and together we’ve built a network that truly connects people to what matters most. As the Board and I discussed, with the pending acquisition of Frontier, it is a good time to pass the baton to Dan. I do this with immense pride and deep gratitude. Verizon’s future is in excellent hands, and I’ll be cheering the team on every step of the way.”