Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse takes center stage at Potomac Officers Club

You may know him from his “wireless revolution” commercial on TV. But on Thursday, June 5, more than 200 members of the Potomac Officers Club and their guests had the opportunity to see Sprint CEO Dan Hesse up close and in person. Sponsored by Hogan & Hartson, the intimate luncheon kicked off with a few words of introduction by Jim Garrettson, founder and president of Potomac Officers Club. Hesse, for his part, didn’t miss a beat. Before addressing the audience at the Ritz Carlton in Tyson’s Corner, he straightened his tie, leaned into the microphone, and said, “I hate to use the line, ‘Can you hear me now but … ‘”

Customers and industry experts have been hearing Hesse loud and clear in the year since he took over as CEO of Sprint. In that time, he has helped turn around a lagging customer base and address various other challenges resulting from a merger with Nextel that had been overseen by his predecessor.

During his talk before the Potomac Officers Club, Hesse’s focus remained squarely on the future and the exciting trends he sees ahead for the wireless industry. For the next 20 minutes, Hesse treated his audience to a string of facts and figures on the rapidly growing wireless industry. Of the world’s 6.6 billion people, about half of them have cell phones, said Hesse. Roughly 1,000 cell phones are activated every minute, he added. “Even by Carl Sagan standards these are big numbers,” he said.

So where do all these trends point? “Wireless data is where the real growth is,” said Hesse, adding that Sprint’s focus on wireless data remains its core area of differentiation. Hesse also treated the audience to an exclusive look at Sprint’s latest offering, the Samsung Instinct, a touchscreen device which has been called a long awaited competitor to the iPhone. The phone will premier June 20, with first dibs given to Sprint customers, said Hesse, noting that his company’s prime focus remains on strengthening its existing customer base.

Like other high-profile speakers who have addressed the Potomac Officers Club Hesse took questions from the audience, then received a POC Star Award from Jim Garrettson. “Given that Dan has only been on the job for about 12 months, our members were particularly pleased to hear his views on the latest in the wireless industry,” said Garrettson.

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