T-Mobile hires Ericsson veteran Ulf Ewaldsson as new SVP in charge of 5G strategy

T-Mobile US announced that it has hired Ulf Ewaldsson as senior vice president of technology transformation to drive T-Mobile's 5G technology evolution strategy, reporting directly to CTO and EVP Neville Ray.

Ewaldsson spent nearly 30 years at Ericsson, where he most recently served as a senior adviser to the company’s CEO, Börje Ekholm. Prior to that, Ewaldsson held various senior leadership roles, including senior vice president and head of business area digital services, senior vice president and chief strategy and technology officer, head of group function strategy and technology, and head of product area radio.

“We are thrilled to share the great news that Ulf is joining our team of amazing leaders at T-Mobile who continue to show the other guys what it takes to win in wireless,” Ray said in a press release. “Adding Ulf’s passion and track record for driving innovation to the Un-carrier mix is going to take us to the next level. Ulf has achieved so many firsts and truly supported the evolution of technology for telecommunications across the globe. Bringing him on board is a total win for T-Mobile and we couldn’t wait to share it! He is going to be the perfect addition to our consumer-first Un-carrier team to drive our 5G evolution strategy!”

The uncarrier said Ewaldsson will be relocating with his family from Sweden and joining Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile the last week of January.

RELATED: Ericsson CTO: 5G goes beyond smartphones, fixed wireless

He’s not the first Ericsson executive to make the switch from vendor to U.S.-based service provider. Before joining Verizon in November 2017, Rima Qureshi was president and CEO of Ericsson North America. She’s now executive vice president and chief strategy officer for Verizon.

And Hans Vestberg, who was fired as CEO of Ericsson in 2016, was hired at Verizon eight months later to lead its networks and technology team. Last year, he was appointed CEO to run the whole company, taking the reins from Lowell McAdam.