Ericsson phones chief quits

Ericsson’s strategic development boss takes the helm as head of troubled phones division leaves

Jan Ahrenbring, Ericsson’s global veteran chief marketer at its loss-making mobile phones arm, has quit.

The vice-president marketing and communications at Ericsson’s consumer products division is being replaced by Philip Vanhoutte, vice-president strategic market development for the division.

Vanhoutte, who is based in London, has taken over Ahrenbring’s role with immediate effect and is considering a new structure for the division’s marketing.

Vanhoutte joined Ericsson in October from MCI WorldCom International, where he was senior vice-president for marketing and sales.

Ahrenbring, who has headed consumer marketing at Ericsson for the past ten years, resigned at the end of last week. It is not clear whether he will take another role within the company.

Bo Albertson, marketing director communication for Ericsson mobile communications, says: “He [Ahrenbring] should be considering what he needs to be doing. Ten years is a long time in marketing in the fast-moving consumer goods industry.”

Ahrenbring’s resignation follows Ericsson’s announcement in January that it will outsource the manufacture of mobile phones in an effort to bring the consumer products division, which made a &£1.1bn loss last year, back into profit.

Last week Ericsson announced it is working with IBM to help financial companies develop mobile Internet services, such as trading of shares and credit card payment alerts.

Ericsson appointed Bartle Bogle Hegarty to handle its &£100m global consumer advertising account in January (MW January 25).