"I am glad to have Jaime in this new role because of his in depth knowledge of the telecommunications market, his strategic background and his success in his European assignments as CEO of the Czech Republic and Germany", Alierta explained. Smith will further develop operationally and strategically current relations of Telefónica S.A. with the three partners China Unicom, Telecom Italia and Portugal Telecom.
Smith will be succeeded as CEO of Telefónica O
2 Germany by Rene Schuster who joins the company with many years of experience in telecommunications and IT. Schuster has held senior positions at leading international companies, including Vodafone, Compaq and Hewlett Packard.
Over the past two years, Jaime Smith fundamentally re-engineered the German operation focusing a strategy built upon customer experience. He has made numerous achievements:
 | Major restructuring of the product portfolio and mobile business model by launching the tariff O2 o. |
| Start of an 3.5 billion EUR investment programme for setting up a 100% O2 owned network. |
| Expansion of the company's direct distribution channels and launching of the Fonic discount mobile brand. |
| Announcing the integration of Telefónica Deutschland and Telefónica O2 into a new business-to-business division building upon converged products. |
| Turning around the German business which has shown profitable growth in the last two quarters. |
Before taking on the position as CEO in Germany, Jaime Smith successfully aligned the mobile business into the incumbents fixed network under the name of Telefónica O
2 Czech Republic and launched the mobile business in Slovakia. Smith will continue to have the role as Chairman of the supervisory board of Telefónica O
2 Czech Republic.
Matthew Key, CEO of Telefónica Europe, explained: "Jaime Smith has done an outstanding job in Germany building the foundations for long term growth and profitability. He leaves a very strong business in Germany which is well positioned for further growth. I would like to thank him for his invaluable contribution and wish him every success in his new role on an international level.
At the same time, I am delighted to welcome Rene Schuster on board of our team. As a German/US national Schuster has a deep understanding of Europe's largest market. With his considerable expertise and impressive track record across telecoms, technology and a range of other industries, he is the ideal person for this position to build further on the solid foundations for growth that now exist with Telefónica O
2 Germany."
Rene Schuster will also be a member of the Board of Directors of Telefónica Europe plc.
A highly experienced executive, Rene Schuster has operated at a senior level in technology, telecommunications and service-oriented companies. In particular, he was Global Marketing Director for Vodafone's Global Enterprise Division. Prior to this role, he held the position of Senior VP & General Manager at the world's largest technology company Hewlett Packard. Previously, Rene Schuster has been CEO (UK & Ireland) for Compaq, the largest IT company outside the US, and Senior Partner (EMEA) at KPMG Management Consulting.
