DT reshuffle: Höttges retained while Gopalan heads state-side

Deutsche Telekom has secured Chief Executive Tim Höttges in his position for another two years, warding off any emerging uncertainty over succession plans for its longest-serving boss.

Höttges, whose current contract was due to expire in December 2026, has signed a fresh deal that will keep him in the job up to the end of 2028, and extend his highly successful stint as CEO to at least 14 years.

While ensuring continuity in the top job, DT also revealed a high-profile change in the Board of Management that reports into Höttges.

From 1 March, Telekom Deutschland CEO Srini Gopalan is to jet across the Atlantic to take up a new role as Chief Operating Officer at T-Mobile US, and be replaced by Rodrigo Diehl, current chief of Austria’s Magenta Telekom.

DT is yet to announce Diehl’s permanent replacement in Vienna. His current boss, Europe Head Dominique Leroy, is to act as Magenta Telekom’s interim CEO while it decides on a successor.

Extension is short, but significant

The Group’s Chairman Frank Appel framed the two moves as a “signal in the direction of continuity and a breath of fresh air”.

62-year-old Höttges, he said, had “made Deutsche Telekom the leading telecommunications company in the world. We are pleased that he has complied with our request to continue his successful work beyond the previous end of his contract”.

Gopalan still at DT centre in new job

Gopalan — one of the DT execs that have been mooted as an eventual Höttges successor — is in some ways stepping away from the limelight by switching away from DT’s domestic business and relinquishing, arguably, the Group’s most high-profile job after those of Höttges and his new boss, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert.

But at the same time, he is walking into what appears a new proving ground and highly powerful position in the operator’s much larger, US-side operation (which produces more than 60% of DT’s revenue).

This means he is potentially gaining nearly four years of hands-on experience within T-Mobile before DT seeks to identify who will take Höttges’ place — a highly handy selling point, considering the shifts in influence being seen between Bonn and Bellevue as the US business increases dominance of DT’s financial performance and standing. 

Sievert de-burdened

Gopalan’s COO role will see him lead digital transformation at T-Mobile, and as such, take the wheel of pivotal (and exposure-laden) technical and operational reshaping plans the American NatCo laid out during its own strategy update last year, including embedding of AI throughout its customer-facing operations via a partnership with OpenAI.

In doing so, he will take a number of direct reports off Sievert’s hands, and slot straight in as a top figure within T-Mobile’s Senior Leadership Team, overseeing both its Consumer Group (led by Jon Freier) and Business Group (Callie Field); as well as Head of Transformation and Chief Information and Digital Officer Nestor Cano, and President of Technology Ulf Ewaldsson. The remit may include the areas of T-Mobile’s most noteworthy recent missteps: data protection and cybersecurity. 

Appel stressed that Gopalan was “one of our most experienced managers” and was “strengthening the management team of T-Mobile US”, perhaps suggestive of head office parachuting in one of its own most trusted hands into the top ranks of an increasingly dominant US arm, while Sievert highlighted his new colleague’s “deep understanding of technology, operations, and our business” (the latter being a reference to Gopalan’s existing seat on T-Mobile’s Board of Directors).

“ As we execute on the multi-year business and technology transformation plan that we laid out at our Capital Markets Day, having Srini join our team couldn’t be better timed, as he will leverage his experience and track record of leading through significant transformations — as a further accelerant to a plan that already has a lot of momentum behind it. ”

Sievert.

German box ticked

Gopalan leaves Telekom Deutschland with the home-market NatCo continuing to perform well, in terms of headline commercial and financial numbers, amid perceived rising competitive pressure.

The operator’s last quarterly results update, for the three months to 30 September 2024, saw continued growth in its revenue (+2.5%) and earnings (+3.5%) off the back of expansion of its mobile contract, broadband, TV, and fibre bases.

The main black mark on Telekom Deutschland’s copybook, recently, has been on the operational side, with a slowdown in fibre rollout amid regulatory and administrative challenges.