Bell Atlantic Mobile names Stratton to top marketing post

Bell Atlantic Mobile has named John Stratton vice president of marketing, responsible for corporate marketing, advertising, new product development, and fraud prevention and control. Stratton will develop and direct the strategy for marketing the carrier's wireless products and services in its service area, from Maine to Georgia.

Stratton had been regional vice president-retail sales and operations for the New York/New Jersey metro region since 1995, where he was responsible for managing the company's growing chain of Communications Stores and telemarketing in New York and northern New Jersey. His efforts helped earn the company New York Magazine's "Best of New York" distinction in the greater New York/northern New Jersey area, the largest and one of the most competitive wireless markets in the country.

The company's top marketing post was previously vacant.

Stratton joined Bell Atlantic Mobile in 1993, after serving as vice president of merchandising for Jersey Camera, a regional camera and electronics retail chain, where he oversaw purchasing and marketing. Prior to that, held various management positions with major consumer electronics retailers.

Bell Atlantic Mobile is the largest wireless service provider on the East Coast and the second largest in the United States. The company owns and operates the most extensive network in the East, covering 111,000 square miles, and the largest chain of wireless retail outlets offering a full range of wireless personal communications services, including voice, data and paging. Based in Bedminster, NJ, Bell Atlantic Mobile has five million customers and 7,000 employees in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and, through a separate subsidiary, in the Southwest. The company is the chief wireless subsidiary of the new Bell Atlantic, formed through the merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX corporations.