Where the internet and the mobile world meets

LiU alumn with an R&D budget of 4 billion $

Håkan Eriksson, CTO of Swedish telecom giant Ericsson has positioned himself in the most dynamic IT-environment there is, Silicon Valley. From here he shall make sure that he can guide the company to right choices regarding technical platforms and strategies in one of the most competitive markets there is – international mobile communication. To his help he has an R&D budget of 4 billion dollar and more than 20 000 employees working with R&D.

Håkan Eriksson has a MSc in Electrical Engineering and a Honorary PhD from Linköping University. He served at the board of the university between 2004-2009.

When looking at the dynamics of the telecom industry what are the most important trends from your perspective?

There are two main technology trends. Everything is going Mobile and everything is going over to IP. With the Globalization follows also a consolidation of the industry, resulting in fewer and stronger vendors, where Ericsson is probably the leader.

What will the convergence between the telecom and the internet industry mean?

It means that you will be able to access all content on the internet, from your mobile device, whereever and whenever. But it also means that the existing players are getting new competitors from other parts of the industry.

You are hiring people from all over the world, does a Swedish education still matches the competition?

Yes it does. Ericsson has 10 000 of our 20 000 engineers in Sweden, while at the same time only 20 000 out of our 90 000 employees are based in Sweden. In other words, Ericsson has a very high R&D concentration in Sweden, based on engineers from the Swedish education.I also have personal experience from Swedish and US education. As part of an exchange program between Linkoping University and Stanford University I was in 1984-85 able to study at Stanford University as my last years of the Linkoping Master Program. I could then experience first hand that my Swedish education had prepared me well for my year at Stanford.

Does an international education (meaning that you have not only studied in your home country) give you any extra’s when looking for a career in an international company?

Absolutely. At Ericsson we only have 1% of our market in Sweden. Also, we work in the ICT sector, meaning that all we do has to work with equipment from other vendors, and in operators networks in various countries over the world. Employees with an international experience will always have a better chance in this environment.

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Last updated: Mon May 27 15:34:05 CEST 2013