The Director-General of the GSMA, Mats Granryd, has declared that he will, as scheduled, leave his position following the 2025 MWC in Barcelona.
After accepting a contract extension twice and holding the position for nine years, Granryd has turned down additional offers. His new position as Special Advisor to the Board will keep him in the DG position through the end of March 2025.
Granryd began his telecom career considerably earlier, but he only joined the GSMA in 2015. He attended 26 MWC Barcelonas, took part in the launch of all the Gs, and saw firsthand the significant ways that connection has altered and will continue to alter how we work, live, and communicate.
Continuing on the brand news story, the introduction of 2G in India and the rollout of 4G with notable subscriber growth during his tenure as CEO of Tele2 are among the highlights of his nearly 40 years in the telecom sector. More recently, the emergence of AI, the still-untapped potential of 5G, and the digitization of everything have all been prominent themes.
In addition to transforming the organisation through COVID and greatly enhancing the association’s influence, he secured at the GSMA the agreement that mobile would be the first industry to commit to the SDGs. This put the association in a position to lead the way on significant industry initiatives like Open Gateway, the Investment Gap, and closing the gender, coverage, and usage gaps.
