November 06, 2009 02:09 ET

New position in Ericsson Group Management Team to drive implementation of new brand strategy

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN--(Marketwire - November 6, 2009) -

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." The brand stands for a company's capabilities, strategic direction and differentiation from competition. It shows the direction to the market and its employees.

"Our brand must not only speak about our ambitions, but drive our ambitions", says Cesare Avenia. "My role will be to build confidence and help facilitate change in the organization. I will focus on guiding our colleagues in this transformation to secure long-term value growth."

Hans Vestberg says; "Cesare's experience from many part of Ericsson and deep knowledge of our customer needs makes him well suited to head this important task. He has an inspiring management style and I look forward to welcoming him in our Group Management Team."

Cesare Avenia joined Ericsson in 1994 when he was appointed marketing manager for division Mobile Systems. In parallel, he has been teaching industrial marketing at the University of Tor Vergata in Rome. During the years with Ericsson he has hold different managerial positions, like head of Division Switching and Network Systems in Italy, head of Region Middle East and Africa, head of market unit Middle East and in 2003 he was appointed head of Ericsson Italy. Since 2006, he is head of market unit South East Europe and member of the extended group management team.

Cesare Avenia was born in 1950 in S. Maria Capua Vetere in Italy. He has a degree in Electronics Engineering. He is married and has two children.

Notes to editors:

Cesare Avenia's bio and photo are attached.

Ericsson's multimedia content is available at the broadcast room: www.ericsson.com/broadcast_room

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 1 billion subscribers and has a leading position in managed services. The company's portfolio comprises of mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.

Ericsson is advancing its vision of "to be the prime driver in an all-communicating world" through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 75,000 employees generated revenue of SEK 209 billion (USD 32.2 billion) in 2008. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on OMX NASDAQ, Stockholm and NASDAQ New York.

www.ericsson.com
www.ericsson.mobi
www.twitter.com/ericssonpress

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT

Ericsson Corporate Public & Media Relations
Phone: +46 10 719 69 92
E-mail: press.relations@ericsson.com

Ericsson Investor Relations
Phone: +46 10 719 00 00
E-mail: investor.relations@ericsson.com

This announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Photo Cesare Avenia: http://hugin.info/1061/R/1352979/327603.jpg

PDF PR Cesare Avenia: http://hugin.info/1061/R/1352979/327604.pdf

Bio Cesare Avenia: http://hugin.info/1061/R/1352979/327613.pdf

Copyright © Hugin AS 2009. All rights reserved.