Hans Vestberg: Leading Verizon's 5G deployment
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of U.S telecommunications company Verizon, Hans Vestberg has over a decade of experience in the telecommunications industry. In 2017, he served as Verizon’s Chief Technology Officer and President of Global Networks, and was responsible for developing the architecture for Verizon’s fibre-centric networks. He was appointed CEO in August 2018 and Chairman of Verizon’s Board of Directors in March 2019.
Known for transforming Verizon’s business, he led the company to be the first in the world to deploy 5G home and mobile technology including the U.S. launch of 5G Ultra Wideband in 2022.
Vestberg’s career in telecommunications from CEO of Ericsson to founding the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
Before joining Verizon, Hans served for six years as president and CEO of Ericsson, a multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Sweden. In 2007, he became Ericsson’s chief financial officer, and was promoted to CEO in 2009. He led more than 115,000 employees and Ericsson’s transformation from its focus on hardware to software and services.
Vestberg is a founding member of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Broadband Commission for Digital Development, where he has led climate-change and digital-health initiatives. He is a board member of BlackRock, the UN Foundation, the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative, and is Co-Chair of the New Jersey CEO Council, a coalition of leaders from the state’s largest companies.
He also chairs The World Economic Forum’s EDISON Alliance for digital inclusion, which aims to impact 1bn lives with affordable and accessible digital solutions by 2025. He is past chairman of the Swedish Olympic Committee and a current member of the Leadership Council of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network, where he helped author the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Alongside Apple CEO Tim Cook, he introduced the world’s first 5G iPhone. With Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, he unveiled the world’s first mobile edge computing public network at AWS re: Invent.
