Ericsson CTO Named Head of Company Operations in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji

The chief technology officer of Ericsson will be going down under starting on Feb. 1, when he becomes in charge of Ericsson in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

The move will result in him leaving Ericsson's “executive leadership.” It’s not clear if the change in jobs is part of a wider management shake-up for the company. Just a few weeks ago, the company’s stock was downgraded to “hold” from “buy” by Societe Generale, according to MobilityTechzone.

So far, Håkan Eriksson, who is a senior vice president at Ericsson, was best known at the company for his work on 3G and 4G/LTE, and more recently being in charge of the company in Silicon Valley, Calif. Several company achievements were made under his direction in wireless, IP, application domain, as well as by increasing the number of patents.

"Håkan's work is one of the reasons why our company, year out and year in and across technologies, remains a technology leader,” Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson, said in a press statement. “I am happy that he can now also bring his considerable experience directly to our customers in the very technologically advanced Australian and New Zealand markets, and add experience also in this dimension."

An industry veteran, Eriksson spent 25 years at the company.

"I have spent the last 25 years in Ericsson within the research & development organization and the last nine of those as CTO. When I took the job as CTO, the debate was whether 3G would ever appeal to the mass market," Eriksson said. "Today, mobile broadband has become a necessity to billions of people. Although the CTO role has always meant staying very close to our customers, I now look forward to more directly support our customers in monetizing their networks in a world where technology and networks become increasingly more complex."

Eriksson’s wife is from Australia, and he looks forward to the new assignment.

"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 coincide 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,” Eriksson said.

Eriksson has been CTO at the company since January 2003 and president of Ericsson Silicon Valley since 2010.

The identity of the new CTO will be announced later by Ericsson. Bloomberg said the announcement will be made early next year.