New Director General confirmed for mobile industry association GSMA

• Mats Granryd new Director General of GSMA
• Allison Kirkby takes over CEO role at Tele2
• Report into Intelligent Transportation Systems in Asia

The GSMA has this morning announced the appointment of Mats Granryd as its new Director General and Member of the GSMA Board. Following the departure of previous head Anne Bouverot who left the organisation to become the CEO of Morpho in March, the role was being temporarily filled by CTO Alex Sinclair. Mats Granryd served most recently as President and CEO of Tele2 Group, and will assume leadership of the GSMA on 1 January 2016.

“I’m proud and honoured to be joining the GSMA at such an exciting time in the industry’s development,” said Mats Granryd. “We have made tremendous progress in our industry’s relatively short lifetime, but we have significant opportunities ahead of us as we look to not only connect the unconnected, but also deliver a vast range of new technologies, products and services that will improve our lives and allow us to engage more effectively with our environments.”

Granryd joined Tele2 as President and CEO in 2010. Previously, he spent 15 years in a variety of roles at Ericsson, most recently as Head of Northern Europe and Central Asia.

“Every day at this very unique company has been exiting, and I will greatly miss all the wonderful people of Tele2 and of course its relentless challenger spirit,” said Granryd. He is succeeded at Tele2 by Allison Kirkby, the company’s CFO.

The news comes the same day that the GSMA released a research report into the use of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in Asia. ITS applications range from traveller information and traffic management solutions to transport pricing and payment systems, as well as pedestrian and vehicle safety applications. In a typical ITS solution, data collected from vehicles, infrastructure or users is aggregated, analysed and then delivered back to them, allowing for better informed commute decisions.

“ITS solutions have been successfully implemented around the world, particularly in developed countries, to address major transportation challenges,” said Chris Zull, the GSMA’s Spectrum Director for Asia. “As mobile connectivity rates in Asia rise exponentially, dense metropolitan centres like Bangkok have a real opportunity to dramatically improve traffic flow, increase productivity, reduce vehicular pollution and even save lives.”

Focusing on Bangkok, the report suggests that implementing ITS in the Thai capital could reduce travel times, as well as CO2 emissions (by 10 to 20 per cent per year) and road accidents – by up to 8,000 accidents per year, possibly saving up to 100 lives or nearly a quarter of the annual road traffic deaths reported in Bangkok in 2013. In all, social and economic benefits could reach up to $1 billion per year.

The GSMA has yet to make its report available via its website, but here’s an additional report on ITS published back in June.

See also: “Here wants to drive standardisation of the connected car”