Dupree Shuns Diplomatic Corps for Sprint

Brandweek,  Oct 30, 2000  by Todd Wasserman

Tags: Sprint Communications

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John Dupree made a vexing discovery in the late '70s as he was studying at Oxford in England: "I was a very mediocre historian," he said. "I realized the world didn't need more mediocre historians at that time."

Afterwards, Dupree--a history and German major--switched courses. He was doing a stint for the State Department in Botswana when an ambassador suggested that Dupree try the private sector, make a bundle of money and then go back into diplomacy.

That led to a government affairs position at the Continental Group's Continental Can unit, where Dupree worked out of Washington. In a seminal moment, Continental CEO Bruce Smart sat Dupree down and told him that, while he was a very nice guy he lacked marketing skills. Chastened, Dupree moved to Continental's packaging group in Chicago to learn the nuts and bolts of getting a product to market. After that, Dupree spent 10 years managing channel sales at Murata Business Systems, a Plano, Texas, maker of faxes, cell phones and components. And, after 10 years there, Dupree wound up at telecom Sprint.

For three years, Dupree ran Sprint Business' reseller channel. Then, in August, he was promoted to vice president of Sprint's business marketing and general business sales group, a post left vacant by Sue Sentell. "Sprint's got a real opportunity to offer value-added services to its business customers. That's one way to avoid pricing pressure," he said. Additionally Dupree hopes to call on his varied experiences to provide value-added services in the increasingly tight B2B telecom marketplace. It's too early to tell when he'll return to world diplomacy.

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