Srini Gopalan, currently board member for Europe, will be the new board member for Germany at Deutsche Telekom as of November 1, 2020.
He succeeds Dirk Wössner, who will become chairman of the board of management of Compugroup from 2021. In his new role, Gopalan will be responsible for Deutsche Telekom’s mobile and fixed-network business in Germany.
Timotheus Höttges, chairman of the board of management of Deutsche Telekom, is looking forward to working with Gopalan in his new position: “The best get the most challenging jobs. What he has achieved so far for Deutsche Telekom is remarkable. The Europe segment is in very good shape, he has put it back on the growth track.”
“Srini has a broad base and knows our industry inside out. He is characterised by a good understanding of our customers’ needs combined with strong analytical skills. He has known our industry for over ten years,” said Höttges.
“During this time, he has gained valuable experience in both Europe and India, two of the most important telecommunications markets in the world. His focus will be on the expansion of a high-performance FTTH infrastructure in Germany and the extension of our 5G market leadership. The Corona crisis has shown how important stable and performant networks are.”
Gopalan added: “I have great respect for the new task and look forward to working with a great management team and very wonderful and highly motivated employees. The conditions for continuing the team’s successful work are very good. At the same time, the challenges are great: With the construction of the 5G network and the FTTH infrastructure for Germany, two major projects will challenge us in the next few years. They are of decisive importance for the future of Germany as a business location.”
Gopalan will continue to head the Europe department on a temporary basis until a successor has been found. Gopalan has been responsible for the board of management department for Europe since January 2017. Prior to this, h was responsible for the consumer business at Indian telecommunications provider Bharti Airtel.