Introduction
Michel Combes (born 29 March 1962) is a French businessman. He was Chief Executive Officer at Sprint, and has held CEO roles at Vodafone Europe, Alcatel-Lucent and Altice.
Early life and education
Combes was born on 29 March 1962. He attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, then graduated from École Polytechnique in 1983, Télécom ParisTech, Paris Dauphine University and Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Cnam).
Career
After several jobs in ministries, at France Télécom and at TDF, Combes was CEO of Vodafone Europe from 2008 to 2012.
On 22 February 2013 the Alcatel-Lucent board of directors appointed Combes as the company's CEO, succeeding Ben Verwaayen (effective April 1). On 19 June 2013 Combes announced plans to focus Alcatel-Lucent's operations on networking products and high-speed broadband in order to cut costs by 1 billion euros by 2015. He left Alcatel-Lucent in September 2015, after Nokia announced its intention to buy the company but before the merger was complete, to join Altice as COO. He became Altice's CEO in 2016, and was replaced in November 2017.
Combes was appointed as the CFO of Sprint in January 2018, and CEO in May of the same year.
Personal life
He has three children.