Thorsten Dirks, CEO of Telefónica Deutschland, has decided to leave the company ahead of the expiration of his contract.
The supervisory board of Telefónica Deutschland approved the early termination of Dirks’ management board contract at his own request. The contract which would have expired on September 30, 2017 will end effectively at the end of March 2017.
Dirks who is also president of Bitkom, the German industry association for companies in the digital economy, wants to turn to new challenges in line with his personal career plans in 2017, according to a statement by Telefónica Deutschland.
The supervisory board wants to deal with the matter of the succession immediately and make an announcement in due course, according to the telco, adding that, in the meantime, Dirks will continue to exercise his responsibilities together with the other members of the management team to ensure a smooth handover.
The reasons for Dirks’ decision are not known at this stage, but industry insiders point to the difficulties experienced following the takeover of mobile network operator E-Plus Group by Telefónica Deutschland in 2014, for example regarding network integration and customer service.
