Tom Alexander, the founder and former head of Virgin Mobile, who joined Orange in October, has hired three of his former colleagues, to help turn France Telecom’s UK business around.

Alexander, who officially became chief executive of Orange at the start of this year, is to be joined by Andrew Ralston, Gerry McQuade and Steven Day, all ex-Virgin Mobile employees.

Andrew Ralston, former customer relations director at Virgin is to join Orange as chief operations officer. Ex-Virgin Mobile operations director Gerry McQuade will move to Orange as chief development officer, while Steven Day, Virgin’s former head of corporate affairs, will become Orange’s chief of staff and communications.

Alexander was the launch CEO of Virgin Mobile until the firm’s merger with NTL last year. Prior to joining Virgin, he was deputy commercial director of BT Cellnet – the former brand of O2’s UK operation.

Alexander reports directly to Olaf Swantee, head of mobile operations for Europe and the Middle East at France Telecom. It is believed that Swantee has been reviewing all divisions of the company, and there have been suggestions that the UK arm has been underperforming.