Most recently CEO of A1 Croatia and North Macedonia for a decade, he left A1 in May last year to return to Czechia for a career break but now he’s back to lead the transformation
Jiří Dvorjančanský will become the new CEO and chairman of the board of directors of A1 Austria from 1 September 2024. Dvorjančanský was most recently CEO of A1 Croatia and North Macedonia from 2014 to 2024 but choose to relocate and enjoy some family time. The appointment seems a surprise return but Dvorjančanský is a telecom veteran and has had extensive international management and marketing experience at Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica O2, among others.
The appointment as CEO was made unanimously by the supervisory board which also announced that Marcus Grausam will not renew his management board contract and will leave the company in September at his own request after 27 years.
The new A1 management board team in Austria sees Martin Resel become deputy CEO, Natascha Kantauer-Gansch a board member, while Sonja Wallner remains CFO of A1 Austria and A1 Group. Resel will keep his previous role as chief commercial officer (CCO) enterprise. Kantauer-Gansch will also be appointed to the executive board as CCO consumer. The previous CFO Sonja Wallner will remain CFO of A1 Austria and A1 Group.
In a joint statement, A1 Group CEO Alejandro Plater and A1 Group deputy CEO Thomas Arnoldner said they were pleased Dvorjančanský was returning to A1 Group and believe he will “continue to drive the company’s digital transformation”.
“Under Marcus Grausam’s leadership, A1 Austria has grown significantly. He has successfully expanded the digital business, doubled ICT sales and positioned himself as the technological pioneer in Austria,” said the two executives in a statement.
“During his time as CEO, the company has achieved important milestones, including the expansion of 4G, 5G and fibre optic networks and played a key role in the digitisation of Austria. We would like to thank Marcus Grausam, who has significantly shaped our corporate culture and led the company through the transformation in a prudent and forward-looking manner,” they added.
Transformation time
Last month A1 Group announced plans to pool its resources and expertise in ICT services in Austria from the middle of the year and launch a Business Delivery Centre (BDC) based in the country. Matthias Resatz joined the A1 team as senior director and head of the new BDC from 2 May and, as a member of the Austrian leadership team, reporting directly to Plater and from September, Dvorjančanský.
April also saw the operator move to acquire IT services provider NTT Austria and is awaiting regulatory approval for that. This acquisition followed A1 Austria’s takeover of NTT’s Alcatel-Lucent telephony business locally in 2021.
This week the telco partnered up with Düsseldorf-based company Cognigy an international provider of AI solutions for contact centres. Cognigy’s Conversational AI platform is combined with Microsoft Azure AI Services for highly accurate speech recognition, translation and natural language processing.
“We are delighted about the partnership with Cognigy. It enables us to strengthen our position in the field of customer service solutions with offerings centred around AI,” said A1 director of large enterprise Juliane Rainer-Oitzinger. “With the integration of “Conversational AI,” we support companies in efficiently automating their communication processes, thereby creating significant added value for our customers.”
