Ericsson Hires Chief Brand Officer

STOCKHOLM -- Ericsson's (NASDAQ:ERIC) in-coming President and CEO Hans Vestberg has appointed Cesare Avenia to a new position in the group management team where Avenia will be responsible for driving the implementation of Ericsson's new brand strategy. Cesare Avenia is presently head of market unit South East Europe and will take on his new position as Chief Brand Officer November 9, 2009.

Ericsson is the undisputed leading supplier in the telecom industry and has strengthened its position significantly in the 21st century. Fundamentals for the industry are positive, mainly driven by the growing demand for broadband and connectivity. Ericsson has over the past year developed a new brand strategy to leverage opportunities and meet challenges to come in the next few years.

"We will move from traditional telecom to IP, we see how we move from being a hardware to a software business and we will see an evolution and modernization of the networks rather than the past years vast rollouts of new networks", says in-coming President and CEO Hans Vestberg. "This requires us to change our ways of working as well as business and engagement models. Our ability to develop competence, behavior and position are key success factors and we are repositioning our brand to capture these new opportunities."

Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC)