Industry group the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance appointed Vodafone Group veteran Anita Dohler (pictured) as CEO and board director, taking over from long-term boss Peter Meissner who will retire on 30 June.

In a statement, Orange executive and NGMN chair Emmanuel Lugagne Delpon hailed Meissner’s efforts with partners on initiatives which “substantially impacted the developments in standardisation” of the telecoms industry.

Meissner served as chief executive and founding director since 2006: he will remain as a senior adviser to the NGMN board. Dohler will take over on 1 July.

Under his leadership the body grew its membership to more than 100 operators, vendors and research institutions incluging Vodafone Group; Qualcomm; and The John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

Delpon said Dohler “is a long-term telecoms industry executive” with “outstanding” qualifications. She spent more than 15 years with Vodafone at group level and with its Spanish unit.

Dohler noted the recent Covid-19 (coronavirus) crisis had highlighted the important place the telecoms industry now occupies, and welcomed the opportunity to work on areas including vertical integration.