Hans Vestberg (born 23 June 1965) is a Swedish businessman and CEO of

Verizon Communications Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas i ...

, where he has worked as executive vice president of the company's network and technology team, and as chief technology officer. Vestberg was previously the CEO of telecommunications company

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...

, president of the

Swedish Olympic Committee The Swedish Olympic Committee (SOC) ( sv, Sveriges Olympiska Kommitté (SOK)) is the Swedish National Olympic Committee (NOC). The Swedish Olympic Committee organize the Swedish participation in the Olympics, choose the participants and run the " ...

, and chairman of the Swedish Handball Federation.

Early life and education

Hans Vestberg was born in

Hudiksvall Hudiksvall () is a city and the seat of Hudiksvall Municipality, in Hälsingland, Gävleborg County, Sweden with 15,015 inhabitants in 2010. Hudiksvall is also known as Glada Hudik ( en, Happy Hudik), a term that originated in the 19th century as ...

, Sweden, in 1965. He studied at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

, Sweden, where he received a degree in Business Administration and Economics in 1991.

Career

Vestberg began his career in Hudiksvall at Ericsson Cables in 1991. He worked at Ericsson for 25 years, with management roles for the company in Sweden, China, Brazil, Mexico and the United States. He was

CFO The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...

for Ericsson in Brazil from 1998 to 2000. From 2000 to 2002, Vestberg was CFO for Ericsson in North America and

comptroller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...

for the Americas. He served as president for Ericsson in Mexico from 2002 to 2003. Afterward, he served as a senior vice president and executive vice president for Ericsson before he was named chief financial officer in 2007, a post he held through 2009. Vestberg became the first CEO of Ericsson without an engineering background when he replaced

Carl-Henric Svanberg Carl-Henric Svanberg (born 29 May 1952), is a Swedish businessman and current Chairman of Volvo. He was Chairman of BP for eight years, from 2010 to 2018. Life and career Svanberg holds a master's degree in applied physics from the Linköping ...

in January 2010. Slowing industry demand and new competition impacted Vestberg's tenure as CEO, despite his cost cutting efforts and acquisitions. He was ousted July 2015, following Ericsson's poor financial performance. Vestberg joined Verizon as the company's chief technology officer and executive vice president of its network and technology team on April 3, 2017. There, he oversaw Verizon's

fiber Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporate ...

network and the development of Verizon's nascent 5G network. On June 8, 2018, Verizon announced that Vestberg would succeed

Lowell McAdam Lowell Clayton McAdam (born May 28, 1954) is an American businessman. He is the former chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications, a company he joined in 2000. Early life McAdam earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Cornell Universit ...

as the company's chief executive officer on August 1, 2018. In 2021, Verizon and Vestberg were criticized for Vestberg's $39.4 million

golden parachute A golden parachute is an agreement between a company and an employee (usually an upper executive) specifying that the employee will receive certain significant benefits if employment is terminated. These may include severance pay, cash bonuses, s ...

executive compensation plan, with a group of retired shareholders called the Association of BellTel Retirees alleging that the scale constituted boardroom misconduct.

Board participation

Vestberg chairs the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

's Edison Alliance, a global telecom ecosystem that in 2021 focused on digital inclusion. In May 2021, Vestberg was elected to the board of directors of

BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a Enterprise risk management, risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackR ...

, where he serves on the governance committee. Vestberg serves as a board member on the

United Nations Foundation The United Nations Foundation is a charitable organization headquartered in Washington, DC, that supports the United Nations and its activities. It was established in 1998 with a $1 billion gift to the United Nations by philanthropist Ted Turner, ...

, and the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative, as well as a commissioner on the

Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development (until 2015: Digital Development) was established in May 2010 as a joint initiative by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural ...

Sports

Vestberg was the chairman of the Swedish Handball Federation from 2007 to 2016. He left the Swedish Handball Federation to serve as president of the Swedish Olympic Committee from 2016 to 2018 as the country vied to host the

2026 Winter Olympics ) , nations = , athletes = , events = 116 in 8 sports , opening = 6 February 2026 , closing = 22 February 2026 , opened_by = , cauldron = , stadium = San Siro Verona Arena , wint ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

and

Åre Åre () is a locality and one of the leading Scandinavian ski resorts situated in Åre Municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden with 3,200 inhabitants in 2018. It is, however, not the seat of the municipality, which is Järpen. 25% of the local eco ...

. Vestberg had previously played semipro handball in Brazil.

Personal life

Vestberg is married and has two children. He is fluent in Swedish, English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vestberg, Hans Swedish chief executives Uppsala University alumni 1965 births Living people Ericsson people Verizon Communications people