Verizon CFO Shammo Announces Retirement, Will Be Succeeded By Wireless, Wireline Unit CFO Matthew Ellis

Verizon Communications' chief financial officer and executive vice president has announced plans to retire after serving the carrier for 27 years.

Alongside Fran Shammo's announcement, Verizon's board of directors said he will be succeeded by Matthew Ellis, the carrier's current senior vice president and CFO of operations finance for Verizon's wireless and wireline division.

Ellis will take over as CFO and executive vice president Nov. 1. when Shammo steps down. But he will stay on to help during the transition and said he will officially retire at the end of 2016.

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During his 27-year tenure with Verizon, Shammo was instrumental in the carrier's network investment strategy, the company said. He also helped position Verizon for growth in mobile video and the Internet of Things by helping secure the carrier's recent acquisitions, including AOL, Fleetmatics, and Yahoo, according to the Basking Ridge, N.J.-based carrier.

When Ellis takes over Shammo's role, he will report to Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam.

Prior to his current role, Ellis served as Verizon's senior vice president and treasurer for two years. After just a few months in that role, Ellis led the team that raised $49 billion in one day to help finance Verizon's 2013 acquisition of Vodafone's interest in Verizon Wireless, according to McAdam.

"I'm … pleased that we have such great bench strength at Verizon that our board could appoint an executive as accomplished as Ellis to succeed [Shammo]," Verizon's CEO said in a statement.

Verizon declined CRN's request for comment on what Shammo's departure or Ellis' appointment will mean for the channel, or what the carrier's partners can expect from the change.

Shammo was named CFO in 2010. In his lengthy tenure with the carrier, he served as president and CEO of Verizon Telecom and Business, as well as president of Verizon Business, the unit now known as Verizon Enterprise Solutions. Shammo joined Bell Atlantic Mobile in 1989, the company that would become Verizon in 2000.