Norwegian incumbent reorganises into four regional clusters with leaders reporting to group CEO Sigve Brekke.
Telenor announced on Thursday plans to restructure its management team and reorganise its business units in a bid to become what it describes as a more integrated global company, and to deliver on its digital strategy.
The Norwegian incumbent will group its various opcos into four clusters: Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe, Emerging Asia, and Mature Asia. Each cluster will be led by a cluster head who will report to group CEO Sigve Brekke.
Telenor Norway CEO Berit Svendsen has been put in charge of Scandinavia, while Alexandra Reich, who currently serves as CEO of Telenor Hungary, will lead the Central and Eastern Europe cluster. Petter-Børre Furberg, CEO of Telenor’s Bangladesh arm Grameenphone, will head up the Emerging Asia cluster, and Lars-Åke Norling, who serves as CEO of Telenor’s Dtac unit in Thailand, has been put in charge of Mature Asia.
Telenor has also created two new units. Services and Operations will standardise and consolidate the development and operation of networks, core IT platforms, infrastructure and shared services. Meanwhile, Products and Customer Interaction will drive improvements in customer innovation by working on products, customer journeys, and analytics.
CTO Ruza Sabanovic has been put in charge of Services and Operations, while Svein Henning Kirkeng, who left Telenor last year to become chief marketing officer of Telia Norway, will rejoin his former company as head of Products and Customer Interaction.
Thursday’s decision reverses one taken by Telenor in 2015 that saw the CEOs of individual business units join the group executive management team in a bid to get closer to end users. Following Thursday’s announcement, the business unit CEOs that have not been put in charge of regional clusters will step down from the group executive management team again, but will otherwise retain their current responsibilities.
“With the changes announced today, we are taking the next step and continue to evolve into a more global company, leveraging economies of scale and driving innovation across Telenor,” said Sigve Brekke, in a statement.
The changes will become effective on 1 March.
