Mavenir has streamlined its recently realigned business structure and revamped its leadership suite in an attempt to steer an AI-powered course toward operational stability, which continued to elude the beleaguered cloud-native network infrastructure provider and one-time open radio access network (RAN) zealot.

Mavenir’s realigned operating structure will be based on what it calls “two integrated business segments, both with a shared focus on AI automation.”

One of the units will integrate Mavenir’s packet core, messaging, and security operations, with the other integrating its voice and radio access technologies. Both will be supported by “platform [and] cloud technologies and business solutions.”

“This structure brings clearer accountability, sharper customer focus, and faster execution across product lines and [research and development],” Mavenir noted in a statement.

The moves come less than six months after Mavenir reworked a precarious financial position and shifted toward a more software-focused approach to the market that was heavy on AI.

The financial reworking had long-time investor Siris recapitalize Mavenir to the tune of $300 million in new investments and, more importantly, Mavenir eliminating more than $1.3 billion in existing debt. Siris maintained its controlling interest in Mavenir as part of the deal.

Mavenir at that time said it would use the new funds to “double down on its profitable Core segment,” which includes software tied to voice, messaging, video, and data services. It said it would then be “refining its open RAN investments to prioritize software in 4G and 5G deployments,” and “maintain” its current open RAN hardware IP to continue supporting its existing customer base.

Mavenir also said it would use the new capital to boost AI capabilities in its systems. This included the greater ability for controlling network assets and driving new revenue streams from those deployments.

“Now we are on to a new journey of creating true AI-native telco stack,” Mavenir CEO Pardeep Kohli noted in a LinkedIn post tied to the new funding and focus. “My [belief] is that with AI, traditional mobile network operators will see significant changes.”

That AI focus aligns with the growing move to include AI in RAN deployments. Analysts have pointed to the benefits AI can bring to the deployment and management of cloud-based open RAN networks, which are more complex orchestration challenges due to the disaggregated multivendor ecosystem. The use of AI could help close performance gaps for open RAN architectures compared with legacy RAN models.

Mavenir management maneuvers

Kohli’s quest will include a handful of new faces.

The most senior change will see Ulrich Dopfer take over as CFO from Terry Hungle next month. Dopfer previously served as CFO and SVP of finance at Adtran Holdings and Adva Optical Networking, where he led finance, treasury, legal, investor relations, and corporate development functions. Hungle held the CFO position at Mavenir for seven years.

Mavenir also moved Dejan Leskaroski from a role as head of its strategic mobile core engagements and product lifecycle management team to an EVP and chief revenue officer; is expanding Michael Cooper’s role from overseeing Mavenir’s packet core business to now include the messaging and security efforts; promoting Santhosh Kumar to EVP and GM for the vendor’s platform and cloud businesses; expanding Sachin Karkala’s purview to now include IMS and RAN; and giving Sandeep Singh leadership over product marketing on top of remaining GM of Mavenir’s Digital Enablement business.

“We are excited to welcome these exceptional leaders to Mavenir. With a strong team and sharper strategic focus, we are well-positioned to deliver innovation and exceptional value for our customers,” Kohli noted in a statement on the new hires.

Others following Hungle out the door include Bahram Jalalizadeh, who is currently and EVP and head of sales and marketing; Ashok Khuntia, who is president of Mavenir’s Core Networks business; and Anup Mahajan, who is SVP of engineering.

Those exits followed the high-profile move earlier this year by long-time Mavenir executive and often-seen-face of the company John Baker, who left the company after eight years.

The vendor did recently score a notable deal to provide satellite communication operator Iridium with a core network platform to support the operator’s direct-to-device (D2D) service. The deal, which strangely did not include any specific AI mention, calls for Mavenir to supply its containerized Converged Packet Core product riding in Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) multiregion cloud infrastructure to Iridium.

Mavenir also counts a number of established operators like AT&T and Virgin Media O2, and also had a significant presence in Boost Mobile’s unique open RAN-based 5G network deployment, which is now in the process of being decommissioned.

ABI Research ranked Mavenir alongside rivals NEC and Nokia as leading open RAN vendors based on innovation and implementation metrics, however Dell'Oro Group notably left Mavenir out of its ranking of open RAN vendors that was based on revenues generated through the first nine months of 2024.