Swisscom Group today announced the appointment of Christoph Aeschlimann as the head of the IT, Network & Infrastructure Group division.

The development follows the decision of Heinz Herren to step down as head of the IT, Network & Infrastructure Group division after 17 years at Swisscom.

Christoph Aeschlimann is joining Swisscom at a time when the telecom operator is gearing up for launching 5G services in Switzerland.

Heinz Herren, from February 2019, will start reducing his working hours to 60 percent and focus on strategic projects and tasks both within and outside Swisscom on behalf of CEO Urs Schaeppi.

Christoph Aeschlimann is currently the CEO of international software engineering company ERNI, which is active in consulting, training, engineering and solutions.

ERNI specialises in consulting and engineering services for digitisation issues, and provides customers with support in the digital world.

Christoph Aeschlimann, who lives in Geneva, holds a degree in computer science from the École polytechnique federale de Lausanne and an MBA from McGill University, Canada.