- Claudia Nemat is the new Chief Technology and Innovation Officer
- Srini Gopalan is the new Board of Management member for Europe
Claudia Nemat and Srini Gopalan have officially assumed their new duties on the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management today. Claudia Nemat has taken on the newly created Board of Management department Technology and Innovation, in which the Group has consolidated its cross-company network, innovation and IT functions. Srini Gopalan is assuming the position of Board of Management member for Europe from Claudia Nemat with taking over the responsibilities for 11 countries. The restructuring of the Group Board of Management and the respective appointments were approved in mid-2016 and are now taking effect.
With the new Board area Innovation and Technology, the Group is focusing on the upcoming generation of networks and the related innovations for Deutsche Telekom customers. These networks will be increasingly characterized by intelligent software control. With developments such as software-defined networks, virtualization and cloud services, conventional network technology is moving ever closer to IT. Innovations in telecommunications are increasingly emerging by network, IT, and products interacting with one another. In response, we will now manage these functions together in a single organizational unit, successfully creating a further prerequisite for the digital transformation.
Claudia Nemat will be responsible for this new Board area and will continue to drive the convergence of technology, IT, and innovation. Nemat has played a key role in developing the department's structure. She previously served as the Board member for Europe and Technology.
The successor to Claudia Nemat for the Board area Europe is Srini Gopalan, who officially takes over today. Gopalan comes from Bharti Airtel Limited, an Indian telecommunications company, where he was responsible for the company's retail business.
With the consolidation of the Innovation units, internal IT activities (Tel IT), and Technology units in a separate Board department, the NatCos will focus mainly on sales, service, and marketing in future. Responsibility for business – that is, for profit and losses – will remain with the NatCos. Overall responsibility for the Europe segment now lies with the new Board member for Europe.
"This is a good start to the year and will give us a lot of momentum. We're strengthening Technology, Innovation and IT with the new Board department on the one hand, while on the other hand we're strengthening our market position with a new head of Europe who has extensive experience with consumers," says Timotheus Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom.
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