Stein-Erik Vellan, Senior Vice President and currently CEO of Telia Finland will take over as CEO of Telia Norway as the current CEO Abraham Foss will leave his position. Jonas Bengtsson, Executive Vice President, Group General Counsel and Head of Corporate Affairs, will temporarily assume the role of CEO of Telia Finland until a permanent solution is in place. Heli Partanen, currently Head of Consumer Business in Finland, will simultaneously become acting Vice CEO with full operational responsibility and will be leading the day-to-day business in Finland.

Vellan who currently is CEO of Telia Finland will replace Abraham Foss as of December 4th. Vellan joined Telia Company in January 2017 and has previously worked in many different management positions within the global telecommunications industry for almost 20 years.

“I have really enjoyed the last three years in Finland. We’ve gone through a strong transformational phase with acquisitions in the IT sector to build the best ICT partner for our enterprise customers, starting the Liiga cooperation and focusing on the growing e-sports scene. We’re also on our way to become a media company, and thanks to these new initiatives and partnerships, we have secured an excellent starting point for the future for Telia Finland,” sayidVellan.

“Stein-Erik is an appreciated and strong leader and has headed our Finnish operations in an excellent way. I’m grateful for his contribution to secure our position of being more relevant to our Finnish customers and I’m confident that he will make Telia Norway even more competitive over the coming years,” says Christian Luiga, acting President and CEO of Telia Company.

Foss, current CEO of Telia Norway will leave his position. He joined Telia Company on June 1st 2015, following an international career at among others Malaysian communications service provider Maxis Communications.

“Abraham has successfully transformed Telia Norway from being mobile only to a complete and relevant service provider with the best networks. During his tenure Telia has not only integrated the acquisition of Tele2’s Norwegian business and acquired and integrated Phonero and Get/TDC, but has doubled its service revenues and increased EBITDA 2.5 times to NOK 5.5 billion. It has been an honor to work with Abraham over these years and I thank him for his strong contribution ensuring Telia Norway has a solid business foundation. I wish him all the best in his future endeavours,” said Luiga.

“I have had an incredibly exciting time at Telia and I am proud of what my team and all our employees have achieved. Since I took on the job in 2015, we have come a long way in building the new Telia Norway, and our success has been recognized by the market. The process to build a full-fledged provider within both mobile and fixed networks as well as entertainment, is well under way. Not least, we are set to build a national 5G network by 2023. As Telia is now moving into a new phase, it was natural to review my options and the conclusion I ended up with was that I am going to look for new challenges outside of the company,” added Foss.

Jonas Bengtsson, Executive Vice President, Group General Counsel and Head of Corporate Affairs, will temporarily assume the role of CEO of Telia Finland until a permanent solution is in place. Heli Partanen, currently Head of Consumer Business in Finland, will simultaneously become acting Vice CEO with full operational responsibility and will be leading the day-to-day business in Finland.

The process to recruit a new CEO of Telia Finland will be initiated immediately.

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