By Stuart Thomson

Nordic telco Tele2 has named Charlotte Hansson as EVP Group CFO and Hendrik de Groot as EVP chief commercial Officer, Stefan Backman, EVP Group General Counsel, has meanwhile decided to leave the company.

Tele2 said said the new appointments would strengthen its commercial and financial capabilities, with a special focus on convergence and online sales.

Hansson, who will take up her post on January 10 2022 was most recently CFO of Systembolaget, the Government-owned Swedish alcohol retail chain. Before that, she was Group CFO at the Nasdaq listed global PR software and service company Cision, Group CFO of the Swedish facility management company Addici and also has a background at MTG.

During the time between the departure of Mikael Larsson, current CFO, and Hansson’s starting date, Tele2 has appointed Peter Landgren, head of financial planning and reporting, as interim CFO.

De Groot will take up his post on August 2, like Hansson reporting to Tele2 president and CEO Kjell Johnsen. He was most recently head of group commercial and group FMC Officer at Russian telecom group Veon. Before that he was chief commercial officer and vice president commercial and customer operations at Dutch cable operator Ziggo, and has worked for companies including Colt, Vodafone, BT and MCI International.

Backman meanwhile is to leave Tele2 in order to pursue other opportunities. The company said that the search for a suitable replacement will commence immediately.

“I am excited to welcome Charlotte to Tele2. Her extensive experience as CFO of companies from different industries will bring fresh perspectives and ideas to our business. Charlotte’s experiences from deep involvement in transformation journeys, for example towards e-commerce, will be essential as Tele2 focuses more and more on automation through online sales,” said Johnsen.

“We are on a journey to transform Tele2 into a truly converged telco and Hendrik brings exactly the kind of experience we need to fulfill that. Under his competent leadership, our B2C unit can continue to execute on our strategy and develop the combined offerings of tomorrow for both Tele2 and Comviq.”