Telus Names Former CIBC Chief Victor Dodig Successor to CEO Darren Entwistle — Update

By Robb M. Stewart and Adriano Marchese

Telus longtime Chief Executive Darren Entwistle will hand over the reins of the Canadian telecom giant, making way for former bank boss Victor Dodig.

Entwistle will retire on June 30 following a 26-year tenure as Telus's president and CEO, the company said Thursday. Dodig, who has been an independent director on the Telus board for almost four years, becomes CEO designate with immediate effect and will join the company's leadership team full time May 1 before taking over as CEO at the start of July, Telus said.

The transition comes at a time when the telecom industry is under pressure and Telus has struggled with sluggish growth. The company reported a drop in profit and revenue in the final quarter of last year as modest growth in service revenue was outweighed by weaker mobile-equipment sales and other income.

Entwistle, who joined Telus in 2000, lays claim to being the longest-serving CEO in the global telecommunications industry. Since joining, the company has evolved from a regional telephone company in Western Canada to a global communications-and-information technology firm. In 2018, Entwistle was appointed to the Order of Canada, and in 2003 he was given the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal and in 2012 he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Telus said the appointment of Dodig was part of a comprehensive succession plan, which is itself a facet of the company's regular planning for all senior executives. This involved a process that reviewed the CEO role requirements as well as consideration of a range of internal and external candidates, Telus said.

Entwistle also will step down from the Telus board at the end of June, and the company plans to honor him with the title CEO Emeritus, it said. Dodig joins the company after serving as president and CEO of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, one of Canada's biggest banks, from 2014 to 2025.

Telus in December paused growing its dividend and moved to scale back its discounted dividend-reinvestment plans as part of efforts to bolster its balance sheet. That came after it several months earlier agreed to sell a minority stake in its Canadian cellphone tower to one of the country's largest pension funds for 1.26 billion Canadian dollars, the equivalent of US$928 million, as it offloads assets to pay down debt and fund its growth ambitions.

In October, it brought Telus Digital back into the fold, completing an acquisition of a business spun off in early 2021 as Telus International, a digital customer-experience and information-technology services firm.

In morning trading, Telus shares were down 2.5% to C$18.84, for a drop over the last 12 months of about 10%.

The company on Thursday posted a fourth-quarter decline in net income to 290 million Canadian dollars ($213.6 million), or C$0.19 a share, down from C$320 million, or C$0.24 a share, in the comparable quarter a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, which strips out exceptional items and one-off costs, earnings for the quarter came to C$0.20 a share, below the average analyst forecast of C$0.25 a share, according to a poll on FactSet.

Operating revenue and other income fell to C$5.26 billion from C$5.38 billion, missing forecasts that expected a slight rise to C$5.39 billion.

Telus technology solutions, its core telecom-and-technology segment, saw a 4% decline, largely due to lower mobile-equipment revenue.

Mobile phone net additions were 50,000 in the quarter, down 20,000 from a year earlier, and just below the 50,800 expected by analysts. Mobile phone average revenue per user fell 1.6% as customers shifted to cheaper base-rate plans, roaming weakened, and competition among the big telecom providers continued to pressure pricing.

Internet net additions were 35,000, representing a decrease of 2,000.

Looking ahead to 2026, Telus said it expects consolidated service revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to both grow between 2% and 4%. Consolidated free cash flow is expected to grow 10% to about C$2.45 billion, while capital expenditures are expected to decline by 10%.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com and Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 12, 2026 11:02 ET (16:02 GMT)