Ericsson announced that Per Narvinger will become President and CEO on October 1, 2026, succeeding Börje Ekholm, who will step down on September 30 after leading the company since January 2017. Ekholm will remain as executive advisor until June 15, 2027 to support the leadership transition.
Narvinger, who joined Ericsson in 1997, currently serves as Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area Networks. During his nearly three decades with the company, he has held leadership positions spanning research, standardization, product development, sales, cloud software, and network infrastructure. Prior to assuming leadership of the Networks business in March 2025, he headed Business Area Cloud Software and Services.
Ericsson Chairman Jan Carlson described the transition as part of the company’s long-term leadership planning process. Narvinger said the telecommunications industry is entering a new phase in which AI-driven applications will require increasingly advanced connectivity infrastructure, creating new opportunities for Ericsson’s network portfolio.
• Per Narvinger becomes President and CEO effective October 1, 2026
• Börje Ekholm steps down as President and CEO on September 30, 2026
• Ekholm will remain executive advisor through June 15, 2027
• Narvinger joined Ericsson in 1997 and most recently led Business Area Networks
• Previous leadership roles included Business Area Cloud Software and Services, product management, R&D, and global sales positions
“It is a great honor to step into this role in a company where I have spent my entire professional career. This is a pivotal time in our industry. As AI continues to industrialize, this will increasingly require advanced connectivity solutions,” said Per Narvinger.
🌐 Analysis
Börje Ekholm’s tenure coincided with one of the most consequential periods in the history of the telecommunications infrastructure industry. When he assumed leadership in January 2017, Ericsson was restructuring operations, reducing costs, and attempting to restore profitability following several years of financial pressure. Over the following nine years, the company refocused on its core mobile infrastructure business, strengthened its position in radio access networks, expanded software investments, and emerged as one of the principal suppliers benefiting from the global 5G deployment cycle.
Several milestones defined the Ekholm era. Ericsson secured major 5G contracts with operators including AT&T and Verizon, expanded its North American presence, acquired Cradlepoint in 2020 to strengthen its enterprise wireless portfolio, and acquired Vonage in 2022 to establish a platform for network APIs and programmable connectivity services. The company also increased its focus on private wireless networks, cloud-native telecom infrastructure, Open RAN initiatives, and AI-driven network automation.
The broader industry transformed dramatically during the same period. Mobile operators moved from LTE to 5G Standalone architectures, cloud-native network cores became mainstream, Open RAN emerged as a strategic initiative for many operators, and hyperscalers increasingly influenced telecommunications infrastructure strategies. At the same time, geopolitical restrictions reshaped the competitive landscape, particularly in Western markets where Ericsson and Nokia gained opportunities as operators reduced reliance on Chinese suppliers.
Narvinger inherits Ericsson at a different point in the cycle than Ekholm did. The initial phase of global 5G deployment is largely complete, while operators are increasingly focused on monetization, automation, and AI-enabled operations. Ericsson’s challenge over the next several years will be to translate investments in programmable networks, network APIs, AI-enabled radio platforms, and software-defined infrastructure into sustainable growth beyond traditional hardware refresh cycles.
His leadership of Business Area Networks provides direct experience with several of Ericsson’s most significant recent initiatives. These include Telstra’s deployment of Ericsson’s fourth-generation RAN compute platform and the company’s large-scale Open RAN partnership with AT&T, which aims to transition a substantial portion of the operator’s network toward open and programmable architectures. Both projects reflect Ericsson’s broader effort to position network infrastructure as an intelligent, software-driven platform capable of supporting AI-native services and future 6G evolution.
The ultimate measure of Narvinger’s tenure may be whether Ericsson can successfully expand beyond its historical role as a network equipment supplier and establish new revenue streams around network programmability, developer platforms, enterprise wireless services, and AI-driven network capabilities. The foundation for that strategy was established during the Ekholm era; its commercial execution now becomes the focus of Ericsson’s next chapter.
Ericsson Milestones: The Börje Ekholm Era
Chronological timeline tracking corporate strategy, record contract wins, and core technical breakthroughs from 2017 through the 2026 transition.
| Timeline | Milestone & Event Context | Strategic Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Ekholm Appointed CEO Assumed leadership on January 16, 2017, amid heavy market pressure to reverse financial declines and streamline operations. | Initiated an immediate structural turnaround and strategic pivot back to core mobile infrastructure. |
| 2018 | Landmark Verizon 5G Commercial Deal Selected by Verizon to provide commercial 5G NR hardware and software for early deployments, moving 5G out of labs and into the field. | Secured an early, critical commercial validation in the highly competitive US market. |
| 2018 | Ericsson Spectrum Sharing (ESS) Invented Introduced a proprietary, system-level software mechanism enabling 4G and 5G networks to run simultaneously inside the same carrier frequency band. | Allowed global operators to roll out nationwide 5G coverage overnight using existing 4G spectral assets. |
| 2018–20 | 5G Commercial Cycle Accelerates Secured bedrock 5G RAN footprints during early nationwide buildouts, particularly across North America and Asia-Pacific. | Re-established Ericsson as a premier global partner for Tier-1 5G rollouts. |
| 2019 | U.S. FCPA Settlement Agreed to a $1B+ resolution with U.S. authorities over historical Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, entering a deferred prosecution agreement. | Stood as the baseline corporate governance and compliance hurdle of the era. |
| 2020 | Cloud RAN Virtualization Architecture Launched virtualized Radio Access Network software modules, decoupling cellular processing from hardware to run on standardized cloud servers. | Laid the groundwork for structural agility and cloud-native mobile network deployments. |
| 2020 | Cradlepoint Acquisition Purchased Cradlepoint to incorporate enterprise wireless WAN, edge routing, and private cellular capabilities. | Pushed Ericsson beyond carrier RAN boundaries directly into enterprise wireless networking. |
| 2021 | Historic $8.3 Billion Verizon Contract Signed a massive multi-year deal to supply Verizon with C-band, low-band, and mmWave 5G solutions to build out their nationwide network. | Marked the single largest commercial contract win in Ericsson’s corporate history. |
| 2021 | Custom ‘Ericsson Silicon’ ASIC Core Unveiled custom in-house System-on-a-Chip architectures designed specifically for heavy-lifting massive MIMO beamforming processing. | Gave Ericsson an edge in radio energy-efficiency, reducing hardware footprint and site weight. |
| 2021–22 | Vonage M&A Cycle Announced late 2021 and finalized in July 2022, acquiring the software ecosystem for $6.2 billion. | Anchored Ericsson’s ongoing long-term push into network APIs and developer platforms. |
| 2022 | Iraq Disclosures Disclosed investigative findings pointing to historical internal misconduct and compliance breaks within Iraq. | Sustained legal, regulatory, and public relations scrutiny despite prior settlements. |
| 2023 | AI-Driven Radio Deep Sleep Software Deployed intelligent machine-learning automation capable of turning off transceivers at microsecond levels during zero-traffic gaps. | Reduced cell site energy consumption by up to 70% without degrading live user experience. |
| 2023 | $14B AT&T Open RAN Win Won landmark network modernization deal targeting 70% of AT&T’s cell traffic on open platforms by late 2026. | Represented one of Ericsson’s highest-value hardware swaps and a pivotal commercial Open RAN validation. |
| 2023–24 | Vonage Asset Impairments Recorded sequential goodwill writedowns ($3.0B in 2023; $1.1B in 2024) across the software unit. | Totaled $4.1B in write-offs, posing major near-term challenges to the initial software acquisition model. |
| 2024 | 5G RedCap Commercialization Brought 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap) software to market, thinning down energy and bandwidth footprints for lighter consumer and industrial items. | Opened new monetization paths for lower-cost enterprise IoT sensors and wearable ecosystems. |
| 2024 | Massive India 5G Standalone Blitz Partnered with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel to roll out unprecedentedly rapid nationwide 5G Standalone (SA) networks. | Successfully offset a major Capex slowdown in North America via massive volume in Asia. |
| 2024 | Compliance Monitorship Concludes The independent U.S. anti-corruption monitor officially certified Ericsson’s revised internal compliance framework. | Successfully lifted a long-running corporate governance overhang. |
| 2024–25 | Telstra Programmable RAN Pipeline Partnered with Telstra on 4th-gen RAN compute architecture, cloud-native RAN, and AI self-healing automation. | Advanced the tactical pivot from static RAN hardware toward adaptive, software-centric tech. |
| 2025 | Narvinger Takes Networks Helm Per Narvinger transitioned from Cloud Software & Services to take charge of Business Area Networks on March 15. | Placed the future CEO in direct operational command of Ericsson’s core engine room. |
| 2026 | AI-Native Network Slicing & 6G Ecosystem Demonstrated automated 5G Standalone network slicing at scale and spearheaded early multi-vendor 6G testbed trials alongside major silicon chipmakers. | Began engineering the baseline architecture for autonomous, intent-driven networks. |
| 2026 | CEO Transition Formalized Announced that Narvinger assumes the CEO position on October 1, 2026. Ekholm steps down September 30, remaining an advisor through mid-2027. | Signals the shift from Ekholm’s stabilization era to an era focused on programmable API platforms and AI industrialization. |