Meet the man Sprint just hired to lead its ‘turnaround’ and create those 5,000 jobs it promised Trump

Not everything has gone according to plan since Japan’s Softbank acquired U.S. telecom provider Sprint. This is why it was a slight surprise the company promised President Trump it would create 5,000 jobs this year — after cutting 10,000 over the past several years.

But with its optimism undimmed, the company announced that it has hired Nestor Cano as its chief operating officer, a position it described in a press release as “newly created.” Perhaps most interesting is the extent to which the company publicly acknowledged that it is in turnaround mode.

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“I’m so proud of the progress Sprint made in 2016, and now it’s time to accelerate our turnaround with operational excellence and superior execution,” said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure in a statement. “Néstor is a proven transformation leader with an incredible work ethic.”

In his own statement, Cano emphasized the same theme:

“Sprint has already undergone tremendous change and has seen great improvement under Marcelo’s leadership,” he said, “and I am excited to join Sprint at this critical time in the company’s turnaround. I am committed to driving focused execution of Sprint’s strategic plan to ensure Sprint remains a strong and relevant competitor in the wireless industry.”

That turnaround theme is also echoed in the terms of Cano’s pay package. According to his employment letter filed with securities regulators, Cano will get an annual salary of $1.3 million and a signing bonus of $300,000. But he’s also getting $16.1 million in 1.75 million restricted stock units that the company has called a “turnaround incentive award.”

Softbank acquired Sprint in 2013 for $21 billion. Despite billions of dollars in investment by Softbank, Sprint has continued to struggle and lay off employees.

Cano is now on the hook to fix that. According to his biography, he had been European president of Tech Data Corporation since June 2007.

Of course, it’s quite possible that his biggest task may be handling the company’s long-rumored merger with T-Mobile. With a friendlier administration in office, there’s a feeling that such a large deal would theoretically face fewer anti-trust hurdles. But it could also be dangerous, given that such mergers often result in big job cuts.