Nokia Siemens Networks appoints Ken Wirth head of Customer Operations Americas

Nokia Siemens Networks has appointed Ken Wirth as head of Customer Operations for North and Latin America. In this role Wirth will be responsible for the company’s sales throughout the Americas and will join the company’s Executive Board. Previously, Wirth was president of the End-to-End Networks business at Alcatel Lucent. Wirth will join the company on April 23, 2012 reporting to the chief executive officer, Rajeev Suri.

Wirth has spent much of his career in leading roles in the telecommunications industry. He played an important part in building Alcatel-Lucent’s global LTE business with Verizon, AT&T, China Mobile, Telefonica and other leading operators. Before that Wirth held a range of leadership positions at Alcatel-Lucent, including heading the company’s 4G/LTE business unit and serving as president of the Verizon customer team. At Lucent Technologies he was president of Multimedia Network Solutions which consisted of the fixed access, data and optical businesses. Before that, Wirth was president of Lucent's Optical Networking Group. He originally joined Lucent Technologies from AT&T, where he held sales, product management and financial roles.

“Ken is an ideal addition to the Nokia Siemens Networks team at a time when we are seeing increasing market recognition of our technological strength, and strong momentum in our LTE sales,” said Suri. “I look forward to him joining us during this key period of mobile broadband evolution.”

“This is an exciting opportunity and I look forward to driving the innovations and new technologies that Nokia Siemens Networks has in the market today, particularly around LTE and small cells,” said Wirth. “They enable operators to deliver and manage more efficient and effective networks while improving customer experience. Coupled with Nokia Siemens Networks’ proven leadership position in services, the whole package creates an excellent value proposition for operators across the Americas.”

Wirth started his career with AT&T Network Systems and has a BA in Communications from Seton Hall University, New Jersey. He will be based out of Bedminster, New Jersey.