Cindy Christy leaves Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent has confirmed to Telephony that Cindy Christy, who leads the company’s Americas region, is resigning.

Christy, a Lucent Technologies veteran, notified her coworkers in an email today that she was leaving for personal reasons, an Alcatel-Lucent spokesperson said.

It’s not clear yet exactly when Christy will leave the company. In the email, she said she would work with Jim Cocito, the region’s chief operating officer, “over the next few weeks,” to assure a smooth transition, the spokesperson said, adding that "...Cocito will be Christy's interim replacement."

Christy’s resignation comes just three days after the company named a new chief executive officer, replacing Pat Russo – under whom Christy had worked at Lucent -- with an outsider: former British Telecom CEO Ben Verwaayen.

“I would doubt that the news will bolster confidence that Alcatel-Lucent is stabilizing,” said Simon Leopold, an analyst with Morgan Keegan.

Following the 2006 merger of Alcatel and Lucent, Christy was one of a minority of Lucent veterans to retain a slot on the management team of the combined company. At the time, she was picked to lead the North American region, one of four regional positions across the globe.

At Lucent, Christy led the mobility group before taking the helm of the “network solutions” group, which combined both the wireless and wireline units.

Her tenure at both companies has been marked by turbulent times, first in helping Lucent recover from the post-bubble telecom industry crash and then struggling with persistent integration challenges at Alcatel-Lucent. She wasn’t one to shy away from such challenges, however, telling Telephony in a 2001 interview, ““The true test of leadership is leading during a difficult time and getting people focused.”