Deutsche Telekom’s SVP of RAN disaggregation and enablement Thomas Lips took over as chair of industry group the O-RAN Alliance from his colleague at the German operator group Abdurazak Mudesir.

The organisation announced the appointment today (4 September) but noted it was effective from 28 August.

A middle-aged man with short gray hair, wearing a navy blue suit jacket and a white collared shirt, smiles softly at the camera. The background is softly blurred, suggesting an indoor setting with natural light.

As part of his role at the operator, Lips (pictured, left) oversees Deutsche Telekom’s patent management and participation with standards bodies including 3GPP.

In a statement, Lips noted the O-RAN Alliance would “remain committed to its mission to transform the RAN to be open, intelligent, virtualised and fully interoperable” during his tenure.

“We will focus on priority areas to support large-scale open RAN deployments by operators worldwide,” he added.

“A key goal is to provide a framework for AI-enabled open RAN, creating new opportunities for intelligent and autonomous networks.”

Lips’ predecessor Mudesir is currently group CTO at Deutsche Telekom and is set to take-up a role leading technology and innovation on the operator’s board later this year.

He spent just over a year at the helm of the O-RAN Alliance’s board, having taken over from Alex Jinsung Choi, who also worked at the German operator during his tenure as chair.