TM Forum Appoints Steffen Roehn As New Chairman

Posted by TM Forum

TM Forum, the industry association driving digital transformation through collaboration, today announced that Steffen Roehn, currently an Expert Vice President at Bain & Company and TM Forum Board director, has been elected as the organization’s new chairman for a two-year term. Steffen will take on the position of chairman in addition to his full-time role at Bain, allowing him to leverage his worldwide network for the benefit of the industry. He will formally succeed David Pleasance on May 14 at TM Forum’s Digital Transformation World in Nice, France.

“I’m delighted to announce that Steffen has been elected as the new chairman of the board,” said Harmeen Mehta, Chief Information Officer, Bharti Airtel, Ltd., and Chair of the Appointments and Governance Committee for the TM Forum. “Steffen’s wide variety of hands-on industry experience and energy make him the right person to guide TM Forum through its ongoing transformation and help our members succeed in the digital world.”

As former Group CIO of Deutsche Telekom, Group CIO of T-Mobile, and a senior advisor at Reliance Jio, Steffen brings unparalleled industry experience and leadership skills to the Forum. He has been a prominent member of the TM Forum Board for a number of years – first representing Deutsche Telekom, and more recently Reliance Jio. A renowned speaker and author, Steffen also chairs the newly formed TM Forum Ecosystem Advisory Board which focuses on how to help service providers transform to play a meaningful role in emerging industry digital ecosystems.

“I am honored to be appointed as TM Forum’s new chairman and would like to thank David for his great service,” said Steffen Roehn, Chairman Elect, TM Forum. “As companies around the globe are going through digital transformation, TM Forum is well placed to make an impact on the industry at large due to its collaborative nature and member-driven programs that crowd-source rapid solutions to some of the industry’s most challenging problems. My combined experience from traditional CSPs as well as from a brand new disruptor will help TM Forum to lead the way forward. “

“I’m pleased to pass the baton to Steffen, who brings great passion and experience to the role,” added David Pleasance. “It has been an honor to chair the TM Forum during such a transformational period. We have sharpened the strategic focus around digital transformation, strengthened the management team and brought a commercial lens to the organization in order to increase member and industry impact. I look forward to collaborating with Steffen and the Board as this important journey continues.”

Dr. Steffen Roehn is an Expert Vice President in the Information Technology and TMT practices based in Bain & Company’s Frankfurt office. He has 15 years of consulting and 12 years of chief information officer experience and is an expert in IT, digital and telecommunications, technology and insurance.

Recently, Steffen was advisor to the chairman of Reliance Industries Group (Mumbai, India) where he helped to launch and grow a pan-Indian 4G and FTTx operator from scratch (Reliance Jio). Reliance Jio is the largest mobile data network in the world and has pushed India to number one in terms of mobile data usage worldwide. He also serves as supervisory and advisory board member of various technology and startup companies.

Steffen joined the Deutsche Telekom Group in November 2000 as Board Member IT at T-Mobile Germany and became Global CIO of T-Mobile in 2006 and Group-CIO of Deutsche Telekom in 2009. He served as member of the board of directors of the TM Forum during his time at Deutsche Telekom and rejoined the board in January 2018 for Reliance Jio.

Prior to Deutsche Telekom, Steffen successfully advised telecommunications, high-tech, financial services and consumer goods industry companies as CEO of the Diebold Management Consulting Group and Principal of global firm, Gemini Consulting. He has a Ph.D. in physics from University of Mainz, based upon research done at the European Research Lab CERN in Geneva.―CT Bureau