The move – on Friday – came as Tele2 launched a new global IoT platform, EnCore, and was just days or weeks before Tele2 is due to complete its merger with Swedish cable group Com Hem.
Avidan joined the Stockholm-based group six years ago to build a global IoT business, said Tele2, and now he has left “to pursue other interests outside of the company”.
Group president Allison Kirkby, who will depart when the Tele2/Com Hem merger is complete, said: “Rami should be extremely proud of the legacy that he leaves behind and I wish him the best of luck in his future adventures.”
Wistrand joined the Tele2 group in 2010 as head of new growth, having previously worked with the Northstream consultancy, run by Bengt Nordström. She is officially acting CEO, as there will be a significant number of management changes after the Com Hem merger.
Tele2 said its global IoT platform “makes it possible to overcome many of the challenges that enterprises face when operating a large deployment of IoT devices on a global scale”.
Melissa Jenkins, CTO of Tele2 IoT, said: “While our other offerings are very suitable for both smaller and larger roll-outs, this is an infrastructure service, an IoT as-a-service offering, that will benefit companies with large global deployments, or with high data usage and specific quality of service requirements.”
The company said that, for enterprises that have, or are looking to deploy, IoT devices with connectivity on a larger scale, “the current solutions on the market have not been working in an optimal way”.
Jenkins said: “As the orchestrator of a smarter world, we aim to launch services that make IoT adoption easier, more efficient and that will improve the customers’ daily business.”
After the merger, the unified group will retain the Tele2 name. Kirkby will go, to be replaced as CEO by Anders Nilsson. The new Tele2 will have only one woman – in HR – in the team of 14 leadership positions. Kirkby has been named as one of the possible candidates for the CEO position at BT but has not commented on reports.
