Frontier Communications has hired Mike Shippey as its senior vice president for wholesale services, effective immediately. In his new job, Shippey is leading Frontier's carrier and wholesale business, including oversight for sales and marketing, new services and customer experience.
Prior to Frontier, Shippey was president of wholesale services at Windstream Holdings for four years. According to his LinkedIn profile, Shippey left Windstream in 2018 after more than eight years with the company.
"The finance committee, with the support of the full board, recruited CEO Bernie Han, a first-rate operator, as part of a broader transformation and a commitment to upgrading talent across the organization," said Rob Schriesheim, chairman of the finance committee of Frontier’s board of directors, in a statement. "We remain focused on strengthening Frontier’s management team, and the appointment of Mike Shippey is the next step in our efforts to ensure the successful execution of our strategy."
RELATED: Frontier Communications spins towards a mid-March bankruptcy filing—report
Shippey will have his work cut out for him at Frontier, which may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy next month. According to a story by Bloomberg, Han, who replaced longtime CEO Dan McCarthy in December, met with creditors and advisors in January. Han reportedly told them that Frontier wanted to negotiate a pre-packaged agreement before $365 million of debt payments become due on March 15.
RELATED: Frontier Communications narrows its loss in Q3 but revenue declines
During November's third-quarter earnings call, Frontier's commercial revenues totaled $882 million, which was down from $962 million, due to declines in wholesale revenues, legacy data products, Ethernet and voice services.
In the third quarter, Frontier had a net loss of $345 million, a loss of $3.31 per share, compared to a loss of $426 million ($4.11 per share) in the same quarter a year ago. As of Wednesday, Frontier hadn't announced its fourth-quarter earnings call and report.