Kerstin Günther

Kerstin Günther (born 1967) is a German business executive. Since 1991, she has held management positions in the Deutsche Telecom Group where in March 2012 she was appointed Senior Vice President Technology Europe. Since April 2013, she has also been chair of Magyar Telekom,[1][2] which is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.[3]

Kerstin Günther
Born1967
NationalityGerman
Alma materWrocław University of Technology,
Weatherhead School of Management
Occupationbusiness executive
Known forDeutsche Bundespost,
Deutsche Telekom

Background and education

Born and raised in East Germany, Günther studied electronics at the Wrocław University of Technology in Poland, graduating in 1991.[4] She recalls that at the time only about 10% of students were female.[5] She completed her education at the Weatherhead School of Management in Cleveland, Ohio, where she earned an MBA in finance in 1999.[6]

Career

Günther joined what was then the Deutsche Bundespost in 1992, working in telecommunications. After it was privatized as Deutsche Telekom in 1995, she took on management assignments in Hungary (Senior Vice President Wholesale) and Slovakia (Senior Vice President Strategy and External Affairs) where she spent a total of 12 years. In 2004 she became the first woman in the company to hold an executive position.[7] She returned to Hessen, Germany, where she managed technical and computer operations for the company with a staff of some 3,000 engineers.[4] She has also held management positions with the Technical Infrastructure Office of T-Home.[8]

Since March 2012, Günther has been Senior Vice President Technology Europe with responsibility for technology and IT in 12 countries and for the Pan European Project.[2] A November 2014 Die Welt article stated that she is "just below the board level responsible for 20,000 employees" in these countries.[5] A June 2014 Der Tagesspiegel article reported that her contract has been extended to 2022.[9]

Günther has humorously described the European telecommunications industry as being "like the centre of a healthy sandwich under constant pressure from the outside, such as from the market or the dominant IT companies such as Google, Apple or Amazon". When Deutsche Telekom made a digital agreement with the Hungarian government in February 2014, she likened the alliance to being the "sandwich to protect the healthy salad".[10]

In addition to her native German, Günther is fluent in Polish and English and can converse in Russian and Hungarian.[4]

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References
  1. "Kerstin Günther". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  2. "Members of the Board of Directors". Magyar Telekom. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  3. "Ungarn: Lizenz zur Ablöse des Chefredakteurs". Der Standard (in German). 6 June 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  4. Weidner, Ingrid (12 June 2014). "Frauen aus Ostdeutschland fällt Karriere leichter". Die Zeit (in German). Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  5. "Wie Frauen in Männerberufen durchstarten sollen". Die Welt (in German). 5 November 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  6. "Interjú Kerstin Güntherrel, a Magyar Telekom elnökével" (in Hungarian). T-systems.hu. Archived from the original on 25 August 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  7. "Wer sich zweimal bitten lässt, hat schon verloren". Spiegel Online (in German). 19 March 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  8. "Kerstin Günter". Inspiring fifty. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  9. "Alles auf Anpassung". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). 15 June 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  10. "Von Musketieren, Sandwiches und Ungarns digitalem Führungspotenzial" (in German). Budapester Zeitung. 20 November 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2015.

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