CORRECTED - Alcatel-Lucent names new North America chief

(Corrects spelling of former manager's family name to Christy)

PARIS, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA) said it had appointed Robert Vrij as the new head of its operations in North America, which has been the principal source of the company's string of profit warnings.

Vrij, whose appointment is effective immediately, will oversee sales and operations in North America, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Vrij, who resigned as CEO of telecoms software group Openwave (OPWV.O) in April after joining the firm in 2007, replaces Cindy Christy, whose departure was announced in September.

Ben Verwaayen, who took over as CEO in September and will on Thursday present his first set of quarterly results, was quoted by Alcatel-Lucent in a statement as saying Vrij will "bring a fresh perspective for how we can better serve our customers in the region."

Vrij, Verwaayen's first major appointment, formerly ran fixed line activities in the Europe and Middle East region for Lucent Technologies from 1999 to 2002, which merged with Alcatel in 2006 to form Alcatel-Lucent.

Alcatel-Lucent has been repeatedly obliged to write down the value of the U.S. CDMA mobile business amid soft spending by operators. (Reporting by Matt Gil; Editing by Richard Hubbard)