Tele2 finds new leader at Ericsson

Swedish carrier Tele2 on Monday appointed Mats Granryd as president and CEO, effective September 1. Granryd replaces former chief Harri Koponen, who walked out citing “irreconcilable differences” with the company in February.

Granryd is currently the head of Northern Europe and Central Asia for Ericsson. He previously led the North West Europe, India, CDMA and North Africa units and the global customer accounts for Vodafone and Bharti. Before joining Ericsson he was a management consultant in telecom strategies at ARRIGO and Andersen.

Mike Parton, chairman of the board at Tele2 commented: “I believe his excellent understanding of emerging markets, technologies and consumer implementation, together with his achievements as a divisional leader, position him well to lead Tele2 in its chosen markets”.

In the interim, chief financial officer Lars Nilsson has been serving as CEO of Tele2, following Koponen’s departure. Koponen switched Tele2’s focus over to mobile services on the company’s own infrastructure by ditching its MVNO operations, and complementing them in some countries by fixed broadband services and business to business offerings. The move boosted Tele2’s profits, but it is unclear what he fell out with the rest of the company management over.