Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) named former BT and Vodafone executive Tom Craig the new head of its telco-focused Communications Technology Group.
Tarek Robbiati, HPE’s CFO, revealed the news in a LinkedIn post, noting Craig is set to step into a position as the unit’s VP and GM on October 11. Robbiati praised Craig as “the perfect fit to lead this team,” pointing to his three decades of experience in the telecom industry.
“I’m confident that Tom will hit the ground running and scale the business to serve our more telco customers across 160 countries and continue to grow HPE’s position in the telco space,” the CFO wrote.
The incoming executive has served as a consultant for clients including Millicom Group and Tele2 since late 2015. Prior to that, he was chief business officer at Ooredoo Group from April 2013 to November 2015 and Global Director at Vodafone Business Services from November 2007 to March 2013. He also worked at BT Global Services in the mid-2000s, serving various roles including Director of Convergent Solutions and President of IP Networking.
In his new role, Craig will report directly to Robbiati.
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His appointment follows an executive shuffle in June which saw HPE’s previous Communications Technology Group chief Phil Mottram move to a new role as president of the company’s Aruba Intelligent Edge business.
The unit Craig will be overseeing was created in February of this year when HPE decided to combine its telco infrastructure, software and services portfolios to better target operators transitioning to 5G and open RAN. At the time, the company said the group was designed to be a growth driver and would play an important role in “advancing HPE’s edge-to-cloud platform as-a-service strategy.”
HPE previously outlined a goal to offer its entire portfolio as a service by 2022.