Ericsson has announced that David Hammarwall is stepping up to head its networks business unit.

Hammarwall will replace Per Narvinger in the role, after he was named Ericsson's next CEO earlier this week.

The executive shake-up at the vendor is set to take place from October 1, when both Hammarwall and Narvinger start their respective new roles.

Hammarwall, who is currently Ericsson's head of customer unit T-Mobile in the Americas market area, will be based in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

He's been at Ericsson for nearly 20 years, joining the company in 2007. He has a PhD in telecommunications from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

During his tenure at the company, Hammarwall has also worked as head of product area networks, head of product line radio, and head of product line 5G RAN.

“David has extensive technological expertise as well as commercial knowledge of the telecoms and ICT industry. He is an appreciated and respected leader in our industry, and I’m very pleased that he will return to Business Area Networks to ensure success for our customers with 5G, AI and the journey towards 6G," said Börje Ekholm, outgoing president and CEO of Ericsson.

Hammarwall added: “Networks is home to me and this is a very interesting time where Ericsson is truly setting a new standard for network intelligence with AI in RAN by bringing powerful AI capabilities to service providers."

Narvinger, who has been with Swedish telecoms equipment vendor since 1997, will succeed Ekholm, who is retiring. Narvinger will also become company president.

Ekholm has been president and CEO of Ericsson for nine years, and a company director for 20 years. He will retire at the end of September, and stay on as executive advisor to the new CEO until June 15, 2027. He will also step down from the Ericsson board.