Verizon has created a new chief legal officer role as part of a broader shake up of its operations that sees previous general counsel Craig Silliman promoted to lead the company’s new services business.

Vandana Venkatesh has been named CLO, with Silliman promoted to president of the company’s new Verizon Global Services business. Venkatesh, who has been with the company for almost two decades, steps up from her role as deputy GC of Verizon and GC of Verizon Enterprise Solutions.

Hans Vestberg, Verizon chairman and CEO, said: “Vandana is a proven leader with extensive experience across a variety of legal functions and business units and will be a key member of our leadership team during this transformative time.”

As president of the new Verizon Global Services business, Silliman will be overseeing the company’s services teams across real estate, sourcing, supply chain, fleet, finance operations, among other departments. Silliman will also be responsible for improving the efficiency of the company’s partner ecosystem, which consists of thousands of vendors.

Vestberg said Silliman’s experience of helping the company navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, from supply chain disruptions and remote working mobilisation, means he is well placed to lead the new business.

Vestberg added: “Over the past two-plus years, under unprecedented circumstances, we’ve learned a lot about how we deliver our services to customers. It has given us new insight and unlocked a number of new opportunities. VGS will enable us to consolidate what we’ve learned and scale it for the entire organisation.”

Silliman has been with Verizon since 2004, becoming GC in 2015 and being given an additional role as chief administrative officer in 2019.

Earlier this month, Nokia’s CLO Nassib Abou-Khalil announced he was leaving the company with immediate effect, with deputy CLO Esa Niinimäki replacing him on an interim basis. Abou-Khalil said he was stepping down to seek personal renewal.

And in September, Mozilla hired former Salesforce associate GC Carlos Torres as its new CLO after a year-long search to replace previous CLO Amy Keating, who left in July 2021 to join satellite network company Planet Labs.