- March 28, 2024
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TAMPA — A telecom and media executive with The Carlyle Group has been named the new president and CEO of Syniverse Technologies.
Stephen Gray will start his now-permanent position immediately. He had been the interim president and CEO since August 2014, when longtime Syniverse executive Jeffrey Gordon departed.
“Over the last six months of reviewing candidates, we determined that Steve is the ideal person to lead Syniverse,” says James Attwood Jr., chair of Syniverse's board of directors, in a release. “As interim president and CEO, Steve brought energy and focus to the business, led significant improvements to Syniverse's operations, and reoriented the company around a strategy based on profitable growth, continued innovation, and investment in key areas to best address the needs of both our enterprise and mobile operator customers.”
Gray joined the Syniverse board of directors after Carlyle acquired the Tampa-based mobile communications connections provider in January 2011 for $2.6 billion.
At Carlyle, Gray represented the company on several boards, including Insight Communications and CommScope, according to the company's website. He's also the founder of Gray Venture Partners LLC, and spent 12 years as president of McLeodUSA Inc., an Iowa-based competitive local exchange carrier that was acquired by Paetec Holding Corp. in 2008.
Gray also served as a vice president at MCI after it acquired TelecomUSA in 1990, where he was part of the executive team.
Syniverse will pay Gray a base salary beginning at $750,000, as well as annual bonuses up to 150% of his base pay, according to the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He also received a $1.3 million signing bonus, as well as 700,000 restricted shares, which fully vest in three years.
Gray has the option to acquire 1.5 million more shares of Syniverse at fair market price. Those shares were valued at $11.25 each at the time of the agreement, the company says.
Syniverse agreed to pay Gordon, its CEO since 2011, his base salary of $715,000 for two additional years as severance, as well as a bonus equal to his base pay.
Syniverse reported a profit of $15.7 million compared to a loss of $6.5 million the year before, in the quarter ended Sept. 30. Revenue was $239.8 million, compared to $238.9 million the year before.