Alcatel-Lucent’s European Head Steps Down

Alcatel-Lucent has canceled its news conference at the Cebit trade show in Germany this week following the resignation of its former head of northern European operations, who had been due to lead the event.

Vince Molinaro was lined up for the top Alcatel-Lucent job in northern Europe last July and took the role on Dec. 1, when Alcatel and Lucent Technologies formally completed their merger.

Molinaro’s previous role was as Lucent’s president of sales for North America, and the move to Europe apparently did not suit him. He has chosen to remain in North America for personal reasons, Alcatel representatives in Germany wrote in an e-mail.

His replacement is Frenchman Christian Reinaudo, a 29-year veteran of Alcatel. Reinaudo is currently joint head of Alcatel-Lucent’s integration program office, responsible with former Lucent Chief Strategy Officer Janet Davidson for piloting the merger of the two groups’ activities.

Reinaudo will retain that role in addition to his new responsibilities for northern Europe, which include managing customer relationships and achieving regional sales targets in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, northern and eastern Europe, and Russia.

His busy schedule means that he is not available to lead the news conference previously scheduled for Wednesday.

Although Alcatel-Lucent has some contracts to reveal at the show, “There were no particularly big announcements planned,” company spokesman Stephane Lapeyrade said Monday.

-Peter Sayer, IDG News Service (Paris Bureau)

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