SpinVox: Patricia Russo joins, quits almost immediately

Exclusive SpinVox recruited former Alcatel-Lucent CEO Patricia Russo as a director in June, only for the veteran telecoms exec to fly the coop almost immediately.

A form filed on Friday with Companies House show that Russo was appointed as a director of SpinVox Limited on June 2, 2009. No announcement was made to the press at the time.

However, yesterday Spinvox disclosed that Russo was no longer a director of the firm. Russo left on August 10.

Russo became CEO of Lucent in 2002, and subsequently steered it into its merger with French telecoms firm Alcatel. After the resignation of Carly Fiorina from HP, she was considered the most high-profile businesswoman in the US. She left the firm in 2008.

Russo would have been a major asset to SpinVox with her high profile and industry experience, and serious high level access, both to operators and to financiers.

However, shortly after her quiet appointment, SpinVox had to defend itself against accusations that its machine translation technology was not what the outside world had been led to believe.

And shortly after that, it appears, Russo beat a hasty retreat from the firm. ®