Telia has appointed Kennet Radne as the company's new country manager in Latvia, with responsibilities for Telia Latvia, LMT and Lattelecom and collaboration with the Latvian government, the company informed LETA.

Following the dissolution of Telia Company Corporate Holdings, responsibilities for operations in Latvia have been handed over to Ingrid Stenmark, head of CEO Office, Strategy and Combined Assurance, to whom Radne will report.

"After the decision of the Latvian government in November 2017 to keep the structure of LMT and Lattelecom as is, we are looking at how to best implement Telia Company's strategy in the Latvian context. Our immediate focus is to work with the other shareholder on improving the corporate governance of the two companies in a way that fits the vision and strategy of both shareholders and contributes to enhancing the digitalization potential of Latvia," says Stenmark.

"We have three excellent companies in Latvia but I see a good potential for improvement through better cooperation between these organizations as we work to establish a more active way to engage with their management teams. I am looking forward to interact with all stakeholders to improve companies' service offerings to the market and to drive the digitalization and innovation agenda in Latvia. There is a big potential to develop new services in the areas of Internet of Things, data analytics and new media," says Radne.

Until January, Radne was acting chief operating officer in Azercell, a Telia Companysubsidiary which was divested in March 2018. Radne has held a variety of commercial positions during his 17 years of tenure at Telia Company, which have also included representation on the boards of Telia Company entities in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

In addition to his role as Country Manager, Radne has become the new chair of the LMT Supervisory Council. With this appointment, Telia Company has also implemented a number of other changes in its representation in the council. Claes Nycander, Sami Haavisto and Giedre Kaminskaite-Salters will serve as the other Telia Company representatives in the Council.

Telia Company's representation in the Supervisory Councils of Lattelecom remains unchanged, with Dan Stromberg as deputy chair, and Hannu-Matti Makinen and Johan Andersson as Council members.

Telia Company is the biggest shareholder in LMT, with approximately 60 percent direct and indirect stake in the company. It has a 49 percent direct stake in Lattelecom. Telia Latvia is a fully owned Telia Company subsidiary.