Liberty Global and Telefonica on Wednesday announced their intention to appoint Lutz Schüler as CEO and Patricia Cobian as CFO of the proposed 50-50 joint venture combining Virgin Media and O2.
Lutz Schüler joined Virgin Media in 2018 as COO and has been CEO at Virgin Media since June 2019. Prior to that, Schüler spent more than seven years as CEO of Unitymedia, Liberty Global’s highly successful German operation, which was sold to Vodafone in 2018.
Patricia Cobian is currently CFO for O2, a position she has held since 2016. During a 15-year career with Telefonica she has held a number of senior management positions. Before taking on her current role, Cobian was Director for Business Development in Telefonica Europe, where she led strategy, marketing innovation and played a key role in a number of partnerships, spectrum auctions, infrastructure sharing deals and key acquisitions and divestitures in the region.
Liberty Global and Telefonica announced the joint venture last May, bringing together Virgin Media, the U.K.’s fastest broadband network, and O2, the country’s largest and most admired mobile platform.
Lutz Schüler, Incoming CEO, JV of O2 Uk and Virgin Media
I’m both humbled and proud to be appointed CEO of this powerful combination between Virgin Media and O2, and I’m excited that we are getting closer to realizing our vision of creating a true connectivity champion in the UK.
José Maria Alvarez-Pallete Lopez, CEO of Telefonica
I would like to place on record my appreciation for the exceptional leadership of Mark Evans, the current CEO of O2. Since his appointment in 2016, the business has established itself as the UK’s number one network by scale and customer satisfaction and delivered five consecutive years of profit growth.
