Top executives in charge of customer experience and branding are leaving Rogers Communications Inc. as part of changes to the company's organizational structure under new CEO Joe Natale.
Chief customer officer Deepak Khandelwal and chief brand officer Dale Hooper will depart by the end of June and responsibility for customer experience and branding will be absorbed by other business units.
Customer service is a major focus for Mr. Natale, who took over as chief executive in April and has said he wants to see Rogers take an "end-to-end" approach that includes every element of interaction with customers. Despite years of efforts to improve on this front, Rogers struggles with high rates of subscriber turnover and negative public perception of the company.
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Responsibility for improving customer experience will fall under the consumer division, which is led by Dirk Woessner and includes Toronto-based Rogers's key wireless and residential telecom operations.
"We're bringing our customer experience and consumer teams together so that we can improve our customers' experience end-to-end. This is a key priority and area of focus," Rogers spokeswoman Sarah Schmidt said in a statement Tuesday.
Mr. Khandelwal, who was a high-profile recruit from Google Inc. under Mr. Natale's predecessor, Guy Laurence, is taking a job as group head of client connectivity and innovation at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce as part of a leadership shakeup at the bank.
Rogers will now have employees working on branding in each of its three main divisions – consumer, enterprise and media – though responsibility for branding will ultimately fall under Mr. Woessner's consumer team. The former Deutsche Telekom AG executive was also hired by Mr. Laurence, but will remain a key member of the management team under Mr. Natale.
In addition to the departures of Mr. Khandelwal and Mr. Hooper, chief technology officer Bob Berner, who has been with the company for 32 years, plans to retire by the end of the summer and a search for his replacement is under way.
As part of the organizational changes, Rogers also promoted Lisa Durocher from a senior vice-president role to chief digital officer. Ms. Durocher, who joined the company last August after stints at American Express Co. in New York and Procter and Gamble Co., will report to Mr. Natale.
Other senior executives hired by Mr. Laurence – who was let go in October – have already left Rogers, including chief corporate officer Jacob Glick (previously an executive with Google Inc.), chief strategy officer Frank Boulben (previously with BlackBerry Ltd.) and president of the enterprise division Nitin Kawale (the former head of Cisco Systems Canada Co.).