Christian Hillabrant will be responsible for Vantage Towers’ digital transformation across Europe
Vantage Towers has named Christian Hillabrant, former T-Mobile US and Ericsson executive, as its next CEO. The company’s current interim CEO Thomas Reisten, who took the job when former CEO Vivek Badrinath revealed he would depart earlier than previously expected, will remain at the helm for roughly the next two months.
Currently, Hillabrant is the COO at US tower company Tillman Infrastructure, a role he acquired after serving as Europe and North America COO for Ericsson and a regional VP at T-Mobile. At Tillman, he led a successful operational and commercial strategy that Rüdiger Grube, chairman of the supervisory board of Vantage Towers AG, claimed “accelerated tower roll-out and grew key customer relationships.”
At Vantage, Hillabrant will be responsible for the company’s digital transformation across Europe, following the Vodafone Group’s decision to sell some of its stake in Vantage Towers last year. The sale involved the formation of a new joint venture with investment companies KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners. Hillabrant will assume control of this joint venture. At the time, Vodafone CEO Nick Read, called the deal “a landmark moment for both Vodafone and Vantage Towers.”
According to Grube, the appointment of Hillabrant as CEO will drive the Vantage’s strategy, enabling its digital transformation in Europe and allowing the company to benefit from the “attractive long-term trends in the tower industry across the continent.”
In a press statement, Hillabrant said that he is excited to “capture the structural growth opportunities from mobile coverage obligations and the ever-increasing end-user demand for data.”
