Ericsson appoints new CEO

Ericsson has appointed board member and CEO of Patricia Industries, Börje Ekholm, as its next chief executive.

He starts in his new role on January 16, replacing interim CEO and chief financial officer Jan Frykhammar. This follows the departure of previous chief executive Hans Vestberg in July.

Ekholm joins from his current position at Patricia Industries, a division within Swedish investment company Investor, where he has been since 2015.

Prior to this, Ekholm was president and CEO of Investor between 2005 and 2015. He has also served on Ericsson’s board of directors for the past ten years.

Ericsson’s chairman of the board, Leif Johansson, said that Ekholm has a “solid understanding of both the technology and businessimplications of the ongoing convergence of telecoms, IT and media”.

He added that, having served on the board Ekholm also “has full understanding of the challenges and the opportunities Ericsson currently faces.”

“As the networks and applications become even more important in a 5G connected world, our customers, and the industry, look for continuous innovation,” said Ekholm.

“I look forward to joining the great team at Ericsson and work closely with existing and new customers around the world in shaping the future of our industry.”

Vestberg announced he was stepping down as president, CEO and member of the board of directors at Ericsson in the summer after a 28-year career at Ericsson.

Since then, Ericsson announced it was cutting 3,000 jobs in Sweden, reducing its headcount from some 16,000 to 13,000 employees as part of an ongoing “cost and efficiency programme”.

This month the company also warned that its third quarter results will be “significantly lower than company expectations”.