Severina Pascu to step down from Sunrise role

Severina Pascu

Liberty Global veteran exec Severina Pascu is to step down as deputy CEO and chief consumer officer of Sunrise, the group’s Swiss joint-venture operating subsidiary.

Pascu, who will step down on October 1, will remain in an xecutive advisory role for six months.

She will also remain with Liberty Global as a member of the executive leadership team and will initially work closely with Liberty Global’s CEO, Mike Fries, to address new challenges and opportunities, according to the company.

Christoph Richartz and Stefan Fuchs will succeed her as chief consumer officer for main brand Sunrise, and chief consumer officer for ‘flanker brands’ respectively.

Before starting at Sunrise in 2012, Richartz had leading sales positions at Orange Switzerland and Telefónica O2 Germany. He was responsible for Sunrise’s direct and indirect sales channels until 2020 before becoming chief YOL (Flanker Brands) Officer in 2020. In 2022 he took over responsibility for Sunrise customer relations, which includes customer service and sales.

Fuchs, who is to become chief consumer officer, flanker brands and member of the Sunrise executive committee, remains responsible for all activities with the flanker brands. He has been part of the Liberty Global Group for more than 10 years. He steered international positioning and marketing activities and products of the company in Amsterdam. He has also held leading marketing positions with Virgin Media in London and with Unitymedia in Cologne. After serving as chief marketing officer at UPC Switzerland, he assumed the role of chief commercial officer from January 2020. After the merger of Sunrise and UPC, he became chief marketing officer. In 2022, he became responsible for the Flanker Brands, former YOL, reflecting the growing importance of yallo, Lebara and swype

Formerly CEO of UPC in Switzerland, Pascu joined the executive committee of the unified company in December 2020. She was responsible for the first offers as a joint company, the subsequent positioning of Sunrise as the new main brand, the launch of the new consumer portfolio as well as the development of the flanker brands strategy with Yallo as a full-service provider.

Liberty Global said she was a driving force for digitisation, aspiring for simpler processes and a better and more digital customer experience.

”Over the past three years, Severina Pascu played a key role in driving and shaping the successful merger between Sunrise and UPC – at both strategic and operational levels. I would like to thank her for her strong contribution to our leadership team, culture and the development of our Consumer business and wish her all the best for her future endeavours,” said André Krause, CEO of Sunrise.