SOLOMON TRUJILLO, the chief executive of Orange, last night resigned after months of speculation that he had fallen out with the company’s parent, France Télécom.

Mr Trujillo, an American, lasted less than 14 months in the job. He will be replaced by Sanjiv Ahuja, the London-based mobile phone group’s chief operating officer.

France Télécom sources said last night that Mr Trujillo, 52, had been planning to leave after the French company had completed the buy-in of Orange.

Analysts in Paris had been predicting Mr Trujillo’s departure on the grounds that his relationship with Thierry Breton, chairman of France Télécom, had become strained.

Significantly, Mr Trujillo did not attend Orange’s announcement of its third generation strategy at the mobile phone industry’s annual trade show in Cannes last month. The event was hosted by M Breton, while Mr Trujillo was said to have had another board meeting to attend.

In an effort to demonstrate that business was operating as usual, Orange’s chief executive did attend the launch of a pan-European mobile phone alliance this week.

However, he brushed aside suggestions that he was leaving on bad terms. When asked if he was “sticking around and having fun”, Mr Trujillo would only say: “I’m always having fun.”

France Télécom announced a wider reorganisation in which two other Orange executives are to join its executive committee — John Allwood, who runs Orange UK, and his counterpart in France, Didier Quillot.

Mr Trujillo, a former chief executive of US West, a local phone carrier, was always a surprise choice as chief executive.

He was a non-executive director and was installed by M Breton over the heads of the group’s deputy at the time, Graham Howe, and the chief financial officer, Simon Duffy.

It is not clear whether Mr Trujillo will receive any compensation for loss of his position.

He is thought to have received $70 million in payoffs from his previous jobs, and owns his own private jet.