Surprise in the telecom industry. On Tuesday afternoon, Austrian Hannes Ametsreiter announced his departure as CEO of Vodafone Germany. He shared his decision in a personal and almost emotional post on the personal network LinkedIn. After almost seven years, he decided to leave the group. “As difficult as this is for me: I will finish this chapter in the next few weeks. Because I have decided to leave Vodafone”. His contract as head of Vodafone Germany would have run until September 2024.
He wants to start something new again at the age of 55, and his path will lead him “to the private equity and investor side. There I want to get involved in growth areas in the telco and tech sectors, to be active as an investor and shareholder,” wrote the top manager on LinkedIn. He thanked his employees.
Ametsreiter has had a great career, he was previously CEO of the partially state-owned Telekom Austria. At that time, the entry of the Mexican majority owner America Movil and the maneuvering of the then state holding company ÖIAG must have put him off the joy of the job. Ametsreiter was very popular with both Telekom Austria and Vodafone among the workforce and his management colleagues. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Vodafone Group, the top management group of Europe’s largest telecom group. Germany is Vodafone’s national company with the highest turnover.
successor
Nick Read, CEO of Vodafone, thanked Ametsreiter and wished him well. His successor on July 1 will be Microsoft manager Philippe Rogge, who also has international experience and also worked for the Belgian telecom provider Proximus.