Ericsson's global CTO to come down under as CEO of Australia & New Zealand

Stuart Corner
Monday, 12 December 2011 16:55

IT People - People

The global CTO of Ericsson, HÃ¥kan Eriksson will become head of Ericsson in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji from 1 February 2012.

He is presently also head of group function technology & portfolio management and head of Ericsson in Silicon Valley and a member of the executive leadership team and has been group CTO since 2003. According to Ericsson, "He has been key player in the company's work to establish market leadership in 3G and 4G/LTE."

When he takes up his new role he leave Ericsson's executive leadership team. The company said a new CTO would be announced separately.

Ericsson said that the incumbent head of Ericsson ANZ & Fiji, Sam Saba had been appointed to a key role within the Ericsson Group, that would be announced separately over the coming weeks.

Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson, said: 'During his time in the role, Sam has helped extend our market leadership position, including the launch of LTE with Telstra, roll out of the NBN Co fixed wireless network, the supply of fibre to Chorus as part of New Zealand's Ultra Fast Broadband Network, and Ericsson's first wireless network build for a utility'.

According to Ericsson, "HÃ¥kan Eriksson has been instrumental in building Ericsson's technology leadership across many technology standards. During his 25 years in the company HÃ¥kan Eriksson has been driving the industry development and under his leadership the research organisation has made significant accomplishments, mainly in the wireless area, but lately also in the IP and Application domain, and built the industry's strongest patent portfolio."

Eriksson is married to an Australian so is no stranger to the country. He said: "I have had a desire to move into a more commercial role, and for personal reasons to come closer to Australia. When Hans offered me this opportunity, that coincides with my term in Silicon Valley coming to an end, I jumped at the chance to work with the technology advanced operators in these countries and become part of the strong regional Ericsson team."