Ericsson has appointed Rima Qureshi as group chief strategy officer with effect from May 1, and said the executive will also drive the company's mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategy in future.
Qureshi, who has acted as senior vice president and been part of Ericsson's executive leadership team since 2010, will also serve as the chairperson of the Swedish vendor's modems business unit. She originally joined the vendor in 1993.
"Rima's comprehensive experience in driving both business and M&As, along with a solid track record in strategy development and execution, makes her ideal for the job. Rima successfully led the integration of the CDMA and LTE assets of the former Nortel Networks Corporation and ran the business unit CDMA Mobile Systems during the years 2010-2012," noted Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg.
The appointment comes hot on the heels of Ericsson's recent announcement that it is to split its networks division into two units, one unit targeting just radio and another solely focused on cloud and IP, with an enhanced focus on the virtualisation of networks.
The company also created a new networks segment as an umbrella organisation for the two new business units, to ensure alignment in R&D and product portfolios as well as marketing. Johan Wibergh is to head up the new networks segment.
"The industry is going through a rapid transformation and I could not think of a more exciting time period to lead Ericsson's group strategy development," said Qureshi.
Ericsson recently reported lower first-quarter sales but higher gross margins and profits for the first quarter of the year as it focused on more lucrative contracts.
Ericsson said sales declined by 7 per cent to 47.5 billion kronor (€5.2 billion/$7.2 billion) in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the previous year when adjusted for currency.
For more:
- see this Ericsson release
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