News
German incumbent creates new Technology & Innovation business as industry moves towards SDN and virtualisation.
Deutsche Telekom this week reorganised its business to create a new technology and innovation unit which will be headed up by Claudia Nemat, who has to date served as its board member for Europe.
The German incumbent said the Technology & Innovation business will consolidate its activities in the areas of convergent network, innovation and IT, to reflect ongoing technological developments, namely the move toward software-defined networking (SDN), virtualisation, and cloud services.
"We believe in the convergence of networks and the value of virtualization and security. Our customers want to be able to access their data quickly, anywhere and at any time. That’s why we need convergent networks that speak a single language: IP," Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges said, in a statement.
"I’m very pleased that Claudia Nemat will continue to drive the convergence of technology, IT and innovation at our company," he added. "She has already played a major role in shaping the development of the new department and is taking on a crucial task."
Deutsche Telekom has already appointed Nemat’s replacement as head of Europe, but will not announce the name of her successor until next week, as requested by his previous employer.
"He will bring internationality and a market focus to the table; he knows the industry and the company," the telco said.
The creation of the Technology & Innovation unit means that Deutsche Telekom’s national operating companies will focus mainly on sales, service and marketing from now on, the firm explained. They will continue to be responsible for their own profit and loss, with the new, unnamed board member taking overall responsibility for the Europe segment.
Deutsche Telekom also announced it will promote senior vice president Thorsten Langheim to the position of executive vice president responsible for group corporate development, effective on Friday.
He will continue to be responsible for M&A, corporate strategy and Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, in addition to taking on the telco’s investment management activities, which will see him manage investments in the U.S. and the U.K., where the group has interests in T-Mobile US and BT respectively.
"Thorsten Langheim has made a major contribution to the transformation of Deutsche Telekom in recent years. The transactions in the U.K. and the U.S. bear his hallmark," Höttges said.
"As portfolio management is of high priority, it is appropriate to strengthen his remit within the company and to integrate it even more closely into the board’s tasks," he added.
In his new role, Langheim will join board meetings on a regular basis.
