Niek Jan van Damme, head of Germany at Deutsche Telekom (DT), is leaving the company a year early at the end of 2017 and will be replaced by former DT executive Dirk Woessner, currently president of consumer business at Rogers Communications in Canada, with effect from 1 January 2018.
Van Damme, who has been with the operator for almost 15 years of which nine were spent on the management board, conceded that his resignation was "a bit earlier than I had originally intended, but it's a good fit with my personal life planning and the best way to ensure a seamless transition – similar to the situation with Rene Obermann and Tim Hoettges four years ago."
Ulrich Lehner, chairman of the DT supervisory board, noted that a "window of opportunity had opened up for Dirk Woessner, otherwise he would have been tied for a longer period."
Woessner previously spent 13 years at DT, most recently as sales director for business and consumer customers in Germany. He joined Rogers in April 2015.
Timotheus Hoettges, CEO of DT, said van Damme had made some significant contributions to the group during his tenure, including the consolidation of fixed-network and mobile business into a single entity, the build-out and upgrade of networks, and improvements in service quality.
Hoettges is clearly delighted to be welcoming back Woessner nonetheless, pointing to his success in steering back Rogers’ consumer business to a course of growth.
"He knows this company better than nearly anyone else," Hoettges added. "In the recent years he spent outside the Deutsche Telekom Group, he was able to gather valuable experience, which he will be able to contribute to his work at Deutsche Telekom starting next year."
