• After almost 30 years, Santiago ‘Yago’ Tenorio has left Vodafone
• But he’s not leaving the telco sector 
• TelecomTV understands he is joining Verizon as CTO

After almost 30 years at Vodafone Group, the operator’s network architecture director, Santiago ‘Yago’ Tenorio, has left the company: TelecomTV understands that he is joining Verizon as the US operator’s CTO.

Tenorio, who has also been the chairman of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) for the past five years, is well regarded, and very well liked, across the industry and in recent years has been associated with Vodafone’s Open RAN efforts, which included the development of a 5G network-in-a-box product that Tenorio unveiled at TelecomTV’s DSP Leaders World Forum event in Windsor, UK, in June this year – see 5G network-in-a-box launched at DSP Leaders World Forum.

No official announcement has been made by Vodafone about Tenorio’s departure but he updated his LinkedIn profile this week to show that he has left the operator. 

TelecomTV understands that Tenorio has accepted the role of chief technology officer (CTO) at Verizon: Staff at the giant US operator were informed of the appointment earlier this week.

Tenorio, who is a member of TelecomTV’s DSP Leaders Council, could not be reached for comment and Verizon had not responded to TelecomTV’s requests for confirmation of the Spaniard’s appointment as this article was published. 

The move will be a blow to Vodafone but a boon for Verizon. 

Tenorio has been succeeded as chairman of TIP by AT&T’s VP of radio access network (RAN) technology, Rob Soni. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV