René Oberman: Telecommunications Man

While many top executives have become successful at running companies in different industries René Oberman has been happy working in the telecommunications field. If you are focused and interested in a particular field then chances are you’ll be successful just like Oberman.

In the case of Oberman he has been extremely successful as he is the current Chief Executive Officer of German telecommunications giant Duetsche Telekom AG. He has held this position since November 2006.

Oberman was born in 1963 in Dusseldorf, Germany. He started his career working as a business trainee at BMW AG. The he decided to go off on his own and founded a company in 1986 which marketed and distributed telecommunications equipment and provided technical services. He had now joined the telecommunications industry and has never left.

Hong Kong multinational Hutchison Whampoa took notice of his company and eventually bought it in 1991. The resulting entity became Hutchison Mobilefunk GmbH and Oberman was Managing Partner. He was the CEO from 1993 to 1998. This firm would then become one of the first network-independent service providers for digital mobile communications in Germany.

Oberman then solidly got himself involved in the German telecommunications industry when his joined Deutsche Telekom as Director of Sales and Member of the Board of Management, T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH in 1998. He then became the CEO of this company in 2000. The following year Oberman assumed more international responsibility for the European business of T-Mobile International AG & Co. KG as Board Member of the European Operations and Group Synergies.

He was the CEO of T-Mobile International AG & Co. KG from 2002 to December 2006. Oberman was also Member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telecom AG. During his tenure Deutsche Telecom continued is mobile business growth and was one of the world’s leading mobile operators.

Oberman assumed the CEO role of Deutsche Telecom AG in November 2006. While his current contract with the company ends in 2016, he made a surprise announcement at the end of 2012 that he would be leaving the company at the end of 2013. Oberman wants to take on a more entrepreneurial pursuit as head of Dutch cable operator Ziggo starting January 1, 2014.

While he’ll be joining another company it’s still very much in his chosen industry of telecommunications.