Ericsson ups Ekudden to group CTO

Erik Ekudden

Ericsson has promoted company veteran Erik Ekudden to group CTO and head of technology and architecture.

Ekudden, who has almost 25 years of experience at Ericsson, is due to take up his new role on July 1, and will lead the company’s tech strategy with a focus on network evolution.

He will be tasked with building Ericsson’s technology strength to support new and existing customers, focusing on “innovation to transform the networks for the future,” said Ericsson in a statement.

Ekudden joined Ericsson in 1993 and for the past seven years has been responsible for the company’s technology strategies and industry activities, based in Silicon Valley.

Commenting on the move, Börje Ekholm, Ericsson president and CEO, said that Ekudden is “uniquely qualified to support customers and partners, prepare for the opportunities and challenges of the next wave of technology shifts around 5G, IoT, and digitalisation.”

Ekudden said: “With the development of 5G, we are building a platform for innovation that will create new business models for consumers and enterprises. We see a fundamental shift in networks technology, which will be unprecedented in terms of speed and low latency.

“My mission will be to define the technology direction of Ericsson and to work closely with customers to design and operate those technologies in the most effective and efficient way. We will do this with a particular focus on the distributed cloud and evolution of mobile systems globally.”