Jeffrey A. Hedberg leaves the reins of WINDTRE
to Gianluca Corti and Benoit Hanssen

The two executives promoted internally will lead the company starting in April

(Italy – 9 February 2022) Jeffrey A. Hedberg has decided to step down from his post as CEO of WIND TRE  S.p.A., at the next shareholders' meeting in April. Since 2017, Jeffrey has successfully managed the merger between Wind and H3G Italia, creating synergies while integrating and modernizing the network, systems, channels and customer operations of the two entities, culminating in the launch of the single brand in March 2020. In addition to these technical integrations, under his leadership, the company has built a strong and differentiated purpose, culture and values underpinning innovation, responsibility and sustainability.

The position held by Hedberg will be conferred to Gianluca Corti, currently Chief Commercial Officer, and Benoit Hanssen, currently Chief Technology Officer. The co-CEOs will be appointed by the Board of Directors next April. Jeffrey Hedberg will remain on the Board of Directors. Hedberg's tenure on the Board will ensure continuity and a smooth handover to the two successors, who have both played leading roles in the company’s transformation.

Corti and Hanssen have proven track records and complementary skills and will remain focused on customer experience, engaging the customer base and driving growth through the strategic transformation of the company. Their combined leadership will continue to strengthen WIND TRE's position in the mobile market (since 2017 the company has the largest number of users in this segment) and to accelerate the process of developing innovative services beyond its core business.

Jeffrey Hedberg thanked the entire team for the hard work and great spirit expended on behalf of the company’s customers as the team collectively re-invented WIND TRE over the past 5 years. He specifically acknowledged the shareholder for their defining contributions and the trust they placed in him and in the company.

He noted that after more than 35 years of work across 4 different continents, he considered it was time for his family to settle in one place. "I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to work with and to build great teams across Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States. It has been a privilege and an honor to have been exposed to so many inspiring and talented people. Today at 60, it is time to start a new phase of my life and career, leveraging these insights and my global experience in non-executive roles."

Canning Fok, Chairman of WIND TRE and CK Hutchison Holding’s Group Co-Managing Director thanked Hedberg for the successful integration of Wind and Three to become an even more competitive company over the past 5 years. “Jeffrey and his team have worked hard to give Italians one of the country’s fastest mobile networks and a mobile operator of choice.  I am pleased to have Jeffrey continue his support of the company in a non-executive role. CK Hutchison will continue to support WIND TRE and the two new co-CEOs and is committed to the Italian communications market.”

Who is Gianluca Corti

Gianluca has a long experience in the world of telecommunications, in which he has held positions of responsibility in numerous companies. In 1998, he was appointed Group Manager Product Marketing Consumer of TIM. In 2000, he became Consumer Marketing Manager of BLU and the following year he was appointed Marketing Director of Tiscali, for which he also assumed responsibility for sales shortly after. In 2004, he joined Wind Telecomunicazioni as Head of Marketing and Customer Management at Infostrada. In 2009, he was appointed head of the Infostrada business unit, with responsibility for the Consumer and Microbusiness segments. Subsequently, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Wind Mobile in Canada and, in 2012, Director of the Consumer Division of Wind Telecommunications. In 2013, he joined the Vodafone Group in London, first as Director of Fixed Line Excellence, with responsibility for fixed strategies at a global level, and then in the role of Director of the Consumer business unit of Vodafone Italy. He has been WIND TRE’s Chief Commercial Officer since May 14, 2018.  Gianluca has a degree in Business Administration with a specialization in Marketing. He was born in Rome in 1970, is married and has two children.

Who is Benoit Hanssen

Benoit joined WIND TRE with the completion of the joint venture between Wind Telecomunicazioni and H3G Italia in 2016, leaving the position of CTO at Vodafone Hutchison Australia. He entered the world of telecommunications in 1997, after working for a few years in the oil services industry.  In 2001 he helped start up the managed services business at Ericsson, with the acquisition and operation of the Telfort/O2 network in the Netherlands, followed by leading a similar deal for the Bharti Airtel network in India. He rejoined Ericsson in 2011 as Head of Global Managed Services Operations after being the CTO at 3Indonesia. Benoit speaks 6 languages, studied Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology and holds a Master's degree in Business Administration. He was born in the Netherlands in 1971, is married and has a daughter.

WIND TRE

On August 6, 2015, CK Hutchison and VimpelCom (now Veon) announced that they had reached an agreement for an equal joint venture to manage their telecommunications activities in Italy.  A year later, the European and Italian authorities authorized the transaction: on 31 December 2016 Wind Tre S.p.A. was founded, with the prospect of making investments of Euro 6 billion to completely renew the mobile network and develop the offer of ultra-broadband in the fixed sector.  Two years later, the shareholders reached an agreement under which CK Hutchison became the sole shareholder of WIND TRE SpA on 7 September 2018.  On March 6, 2020, the single brand WINDTRE was born with the commitment to make customers feel "closer and closer".  A promise kept in the hardest years of the pandemic, during which the company's mobile and fixed network has supported an increase in data traffic in the order of 50% per year, allowing the remote conduct of study, work, provision of services and providing tools and channels for personal relationships.