In January, Dr. Frederic Ufer took over the role of sole Managing Director of the association. President David Zimmer paid tribute to the long-standing Managing Director Jürgen Grützner, who had led VATM for 25 years, and thanked him for his services.
"Over the past 25 years, Jürgen Grützner has fought for the right political and regulatory framework conditions for fair competition for and with the VATM member companies", emphasised Zimmer. "His commitment and passion have shaped the market and enabled its competitive opening - through fair access conditions and agreements with Deutsche Telekom as well as through the best possible framework conditions for high-performance networks and their fair utilisation options. We would like to thank Jürgen Grützner from the bottom of our hearts for his impressive commitment and his important contribution to the development of the telecommunications market and the digitalisation of our country. I am delighted that Jürgen Grützner will continue to put his knowledge at the service of our association as Senior Advisor."
At the same time, the VATM President welcomed Dr. Frederic Ufer as the sole Managing Director: "Dr. Frederic Ufer has had a significant influence on VATM over the past 16 years and has helped to set the course for the market. His legal expertise, combined with a clear view of the dynamics of the telecommunications sector, has rightly led to an enormously high level of recognition in the industry. We look forward to continuing our close and trusting collaboration with Dr Ufer and to shaping the future of our strong association together."
"The digitalisation of society and the economy can only succeed with an efficient telecommunications infrastructure", emphasised VATM Association Chairman Ufer. "This requires optimal framework conditions with fair competition for consumer welfare and innovative strength. This has been VATM's DNA for 25 years, and the association is therefore ideally equipped for the future. Because only it represents the entire telecommunications market with the broad range of business models it represents. This means that the association is and remains the most important point of contact for politicians and authorities on the major issues and current challenges facing the market: the shutdown of copper networks, fair access conditions and open access as well as the goal of nationwide fibre optic and mobile networks. I look forward to continuing to work closely with politicians, regulators and, of course, the entire industry at such an important and exciting time for companies."
