Pascu will assume her new role as of February 1 2020, leaving her current position of CEO of UPC Switzerland, which will now be taken over by Coopmans. Before this promotion, Coopmans served as senior vice present of operation at Liberty Global before which he was a senior executive with the company for the last seven years.
“This is an exciting moment for Virgin Media,” said Mike Fries, CEO Liberty Global. “Severina is a world class operator and finance executive. She’s done extraordinary work executing our turnaround plan in Switzerland and will be a critical partner to Lutz at Virgin Media. They will be a powerhouse team.”
In addition to leading the finance operations at Virgin Media, Pascu will also assume responsibility for customer service and field operations as well as logistics and supply chain for the company. She will report to Lutz Schüler, CEO of Virgin Media and will continue to be a member of Liberty Global’s executive leadership team.
“Severina has a fantastic track record in telecoms markets across Europe and has extensive operational and strategic experience which will be invaluable to us at Virgin Media,” said Schüler. “I’m looking forward to Severina joining the team next month as we continue to transform our business and embark on an exciting new growth chapter to help us realise our ambition to become the most recommended brand in our sector for our people and customers.”
Pascu joined Liberty Global as CFO of UPC Romania in 2008. She has held positions ranging from CEO of Romania and Hungary and later for all of Liberty’s Central European businesses.
As for Coopmans he joined Liberty Global in 2013 as CEO of UPC Netherlands where he oversaw the merger of UPC with Ziggo to become VodafoneZiggo.
In his new role, Coopmans will also lead Liberty Global’s operations in Poland and Slovakia and will be on Liberty Global’s executive leadership team, reporting to Fries.
“Baptiest is a great fit for the UPC team,” added Fries. “He has CEO experience and has done excellent work reshaping our operating model to drive reduced costs and greater efficiency. There’s still hard work to be done in Switzerland and Baptiest is well positioned to take the reins.”
