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Leadership

A very flat organization still needs a leadership. This is ours. Click to read more about their background, dreams and visions. And for the sake of transparency: Feel free to get in touch with them if needed. We've provided you with links to their LinkedIn-profiles.

Management team Board of Directors

Management team

The Arelion management team is responsible for setting the company strategy and running the operations of our organization.

Staffan Göjeryd, CEO—

Staffan Göjeryd was appointed CEO of Telia Carrier (now Arelion) in August 2016. Having started at a time when a 14k modem was considered high tech, he has since helped drive the company to its position as the world’s leading global backbone. (...)
His focus on customer excellence and delivering exceptional quality to Arelion’s customers are just two of the areas that have taken him on this literal journey from the trenches to high command. Despite knowing all there is to know about connectivity, Staffan’s main interest is what customers actually do with it. Having seen the repeated cycles of Internet boom and bust, he knows it takes more than belief and adrenaline to build a successful business. Staffan has held technical and customer-facing roles within Telia Company in both Europe and North America. These include Director of Network Planning and head of Telia Carrier´s Data and Infrastructure business. He holds a Bachelor in Business Administration from Linköping University and is an accomplished golfer – a hobby currently taking second place to his kids.

Simon Dodsworth, VP Voice Trading—

"Challenge everything" - that's Simon’s motto in life. It makes him terrible to play Trivial Pursuit with, but great when it comes to solving problems. This approach, combined with almost two decades in the telco industry, has made Simon a leading thinker in matters of voice, mobile data, and the new world of IPX. (...)
Starting his career buying and selling voice in the post-deregulation UK market, Simon’s aptitude for efficiency soon saw him gravitate to the operations side of wholesale. Simon joined Telia Carrier (now Arelion) in 2005 and became head of the Voice and Mobile business in 2010. But he has never lost sight of the customer. Among his responsibilities, he currently heads the Arelion CX Council, driving customer experience improvements across all areas of Arelion. What you didn't know is that Simon has represented Scotland in volleyball and speaks Spanish, French and English. He has lived in Sweden for the past 12 years but doesn’t speak Swedish. As said, he prefers the challenge. read less

Maja Sever, CMO—

Maja was appointed CMO of Telia Carrier (now Arelion) in March 2019. She is on a mission to spread the word about all the great things Arelion does in the world of connectivity and acquire some new customers along the way. (...)
Maja’s passion is building strong global brands, along with creating powerful teams and motivated them to think greater than great. She has extensive experience from driving marketing and communications in international B2B and B2C environments, from both large and medium corporations within telecoms, IT, and finance. She describes herself as a strategist with a tactical spirit. A native Serbian, Maja has lived and worked in the US, Sweden, Belgium, and Serbia, with ‘global’ being the red thread in her career and personal life. A while ago she started a fashion company but realized shortly after that she has more to give in the world of marketing and communications. And she never looked back.

Mattias Fridström, Chief Evangelist—

There’s a certain type of person who gets a little bit too excited about networks. Mattias is that guy. If he had a tattoo, it would be of a network. His knowledge is mind-boggling and his passion irrepressible. (...)
He offers deep insights into the networked economy. What are the challenges of tomorrow for network providers? How can we meet ever-increasing traffic demand and customer quality expectations within the same cost frame? Mattias holds an MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wollongong, Australia. Since joining Telia in 1996, he has worked in a number of senior roles within Telia Carrier (now Arelion) and most recently as CTO. Since July 2016 he has been Arelion’s Chief Evangelist. Mattias’ passion isn’t limited to networks: He has played golf professionally and competed on a national level in football and innebandy. Although he has a reputation when it comes to sports as being the “worst loser at Arelion”, he is working hard to overcome this – by not losing to anyone. At anything. Ever.

Anette Mullis, VP HR—

Anette Mullis was appointed VP HR of Telia Carrier (now Arelion) in August 2021. Anette has a passion for employee engagement, talent management, and competency development. She loves the concept of lifelong learning, and the future of work topics. (...)

 

A native Swede who has lived and worked for almost two decades in the USA with area responsibility also for Canada and Mexico during a couple of years. She has also been based out of Denmark and the Netherlands in prior HR roles, and held several HR Executive Management roles with global scope. Anette has a BSc from Lund’s University of Sweden. She approaches people management with personal integrity and a common-sense. Behind the office walls she is a trumpet player, likes genealogy, and spending time together with family and friends.

Sophie Reinius, CFO—

Sophie joined as Group CFO for Telia Carrier (now Arelion) in November 2021. The journey towards a stand-alone company with everything that it involves is something that appeals to Sophie, to change, transform and create value on this journey. (...)
Having worked with finance throughout her career in various industries from telecom, IT to critical infrastructure, it felt like a match made in heaven to join Telia Carrier (now Arelion) as the world's leading IP backbone provider. When Sophie doesn't strategize over IP backbone investments, she rests her own backbone on a yoga mat as a newbie to the world of yoga or in the woods hiking.

Johan Ottosson, VP Strategy—

Johan Ottosson’s career is founded on two things: curiosity and exploration. And, not to mention, an MSc. degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology. (...)
As an experienced strategist and manager, Johan led the development of growth strategies, M&A and long-term corporate strategic planning across various industries, before zeroing in on communications and technology. After ten years at a global consulting firm, Johan found Telia Carrier (now Arelion). Faced with task of extending its current leadership in wholesale while innovating further around global connectivity, Johan decided to take on the role as Vice President Strategy. Johan believes that a firm commitment to innovation is the key to staying competitive, especially in an industry undergoing such profound transformations as the ICT market. His experience has also taught him that innovation is not defined by organizational charts and that many of the best ideas come from those on the front line, working with customers or engineering the network. Beyond the office walls, music is an important part of Johan’s life. Niche and indie bands are his thing – that, and the sounds of his two small children.

Frank Kirchner, Head of Legal Affairs—

Soon after graduating from law school, Hanover-born Frank Kirchner realized that life in a law firm was not for him. A rapid series of opportunities led to him being thrown in the deep end, heading up the legal department for an American telco business. (...)
The speed of the wholesale telco business and Internet worlds mirror his own career. Frank joined Telia Carrier (now Arelion) in 2001 and, since then, he says “I’ve never had a day when I felt everything was done – there’s always something to learn”. That sentiment is easy to understand, given that in addition to his current role, Frank is also Managing Director of four Telia Carrier (now Arelion) companies in three countries. One of the challenges that most inspires Frank is that of securing Arelion’s position in an international and technical environment. Dealing with huge companies across multiple jurisdictions calls for both a sense of the bigger picture and an eye for detail. But when it’s time to wind down, Frank relaxes by skiing with his sons, cooking, and running in the woods near his home.

Andrew Everest, VP Procurement & Service Delivery—

Andy ‘wears two hats’ at Arelion. He has ultimate responsibility for purchasing and supplier management, alongside running a Service Delivery unit. Andy has worked in the telecommunications industry for nearly twenty-two years and has worked for Global Crossing, NTT Communications, and euNetworks.

(...)
Arelion has been his home for the last 8+ years. Andy holds a BA degree in German and a Master of Arts in Management. He enjoys travelling and sports in his spare time, although it’s certainly more watching sports these days as opposed to playing. Working in telecommunications industry has allowed Andy to meet a number of external customers and suppliers, and he’s also been able to travel and work with people from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds. He still finds the business challenging and there’s still lots to do – improving customer service constantly is still very much on that radar as well.

Dariusz Solowiej, VP Network Technology & Customer Operations—

Dariusz has more than 20 years’ experience in the telco industry. He is highly skilled at building and refining both new and existing technology solutions, to deliver the greatest possible customer value. His extensive knowledge of programming, data science, analytics and machine learning helps him to identify and embrace emerging patterns and trends. (...)
Dariusz possesses strong analytical skills and financial knowledge - a powerful combination that helps him master budgets and forecasting, as well as production and TCO (total cost of ownership) models for diverse network production platforms. At Arelion, he works tirelessly with his team to continuously improve service quality - for greater customer satisfaction and value. When he’s not doing that, he enjoys travelling and reading books. For him, a day without reading is a day wasted!

Scott Nichols, CCO—

Scott leads Arelion’s global data Sales and Sales Operations teams. Based in Richardson, TX, Scott is a seasoned technology solutions sales executive and brings more than 25 years of data, technology, and sales enablement experience to this role.

(...)
His specialty is building and managing high-performance sales organizations in an extremely competitive marketplace. Scott believes that the combination of Arelion’s global network assets, solution portfolio, and a history of delighting our customers, coupled with a dynamic marketplace, makes this an ideal environment to leverage his skillset and experience. Outside of the office, when Scott is not spending time with his wife and three children, he enjoys fly-fishing and seeing live music of all types.

Board of Directors

The Arelion Board of Directors was appointed in 2021, following the divestment of Arelion (formerly Telia Carrier) from Telia Company.

Eva Elmstedt, Chairperson of the Board—

Previous experience as EVP Global Services and member of the management team at Nokia Networks and Nokia Siemens Networks, as well as senior positions within Ericsson, 3, IBM and Semcon. Current Board assignments: Chairperson of the Board of Omegapoint, Semcon and Seriline, as well as Board member of Addtech, Arjo, Elanders and Smart Eye.

Johnny Svedberg, Board member—

More than 35 years of experience within telecom and IT globally. Previous roles include COO at Indonesian telecom operator IndosatOoredoo, COO at Tele2, CEO of Teracom AB, and CEO of Infocare AS.

Karin Karlström, Board member—

Karin Karlström, CEO of Polhem Infra, representing the owner, has a strong background in the tech and telecom sector. Her current Board commitments include Board member of Bambuser, and Deputy Board member and senior advisor of Expedition Mondial.

Daniel Kurgan, Board member—

More than 25 years of experience in an array of positions from Account Manager to CEO of BICS, and Chairman of TeleSign. Daniel’s current mandates include Chairman of the Board of Intercloud, Board Member Monnai, Senior Advisor Drake Star, and Advisor at iPification.

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