Srini Gopalan to become new Board member for Deutsche Telekom Germany

Srini Gopalan, currently Board member for Europe, will be the new Board member for Germany at Deutsche Telekom as of November 1, 2020.

He succeeds Dirk Wössner, who will become Chairman of the Board of Management of Compugroup from 2021. The Board of Management member Germany is responsible for Deutsche Telekom's mobile and fixed-network business in Germany.

Ulrich Lehner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom: "I am delighted with the appointment of Srini Gopalan. He has already worked very successfully in his previous position. He can now bring his vast experience to a larger Board of Management area.”

Timotheus Höttges, Chairman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Telekom Deutschland is looking forward to working with Srini Gopalan in his new position: “The best get the most challenging jobs. What he has achieved so far for Deutsche Telekom is remarkable. The Europe segment is in very good shape, he has put it back on the growth track. Srini has a broad base and knows our industry inside out. He is characterized by a good understanding of our customers' needs combined with strong analytical skills. He has known our industry for over ten years. During this time, he has gained valuable experience in both Europe and India, two of the most important telecommunications markets in the world. His focus will be on the expansion of a high-performance FTTH infrastructure in Germany and the extension of our 5G market leadership. The Corona crisis has shown how important stable and performant networks are."

Srini Gopalan: "I would like to thank the Supervisory Board for the trust they have placed in me. I have great respect for the new task and look forward to working with a great management team and very wonderful and highly motivated employees. The conditions for continuing the team’s successful work are very good. At the same time, the challenges are great: With the construction of the 5G network and the FTTH infrastructure for Germany, two major projects will challenge us in the next few years. They are of decisive importance for the future of Germany as a business location."

Srini Gopalan will continue to head the Europe Department on a temporary basis until a successor has been found.

Gopalan has been responsible for the Board of Management department for Europe since January 2017. Prior to this, Gopalan was responsible for the consumer business at Indian telecommunications provider Bharti Airtel. The product range included mobile communications offerings, broadband connections and satellite TV. Before joining Bharti Airtel, Srini Gopalan worked in the UK for more than ten years. Srini moved to the UK to be part of a startup, Capital One, in 1999 and he left in 2009 as Managing Director UK. He then moved to T-Mobile UK as Managing Director Marketing. Gopalan was part of the management team that transferred T-Mobile UK to the joint venture with Orange, EE. He then moved to Vodafone UK for three years as Head of the residential customer division.

Srini Gopalan studied Economics at the renowned Saint Stephen's College in New Delhi. He earned his MBA at IIM Ahmedabad, India's leading business school.