Orange UK hires ex-Virgin CEO

France Telecom-owned Orange has announced that former Virgin Mobile boss Tom Alexander has joined the company as CEO of the UK business.

He succeeds Bernard Ghillebaert who will be fulfilling a new group level role as Executive Vice President of Sales and Customer Experience. Alexander will report directly to Olaf Swantee, Senior Executive Vice President Personal Communication Services UK & EME for the Orange Group, and will join the company in December 2007.

The incoming chief was CEO of Virgin Mobile in the UK from its inception in 1999 until its sale to NTL in 2006. Prior to that he was Deputy Commerical Director of BT Cellnet.

The word is that Olaf Swantee, who joined parent company France Telecom as head of mobile operations for Europe and the Middle East in the summer has been reviewing all divisions of the company, and there is some suggestion that the UK arm has been underperforming.

Swantee joined after Sanjiv Ahuja, head of its international and domestic mobile operation, stepped down in April.