United Group, the leading provider of telecommunications services and media in Southeast Europe, announced today it has appointed Panayotis Georgiopoulos Chief Executive Officer of its Greek unit, telecommunications and pay-TV provider Forthnet S.A., effective 1 April 2021.

Georgiopoulos joins from WIND Hellas, where he is currently Business Segment Executive Director. Before WIND he spent eight years at Vodafone Greece, initially as Head of Strategy and then Commercial Operations Director.

“I’m delighted to welcome Panayotis to United Group. He is a skilled leader with over two decades of experience. This includes an impressive track record in the telecommunications industry, specifically in areas such as strategy, sales, and customer operations – both in B2B and B2C,” said United Group Chief Executive Officer Victoriya Boklag.

“We want to bring value to Greek consumers and businesses, not only in terms of product and services, but also in terms of superior customer experience. The experience Panayotis has on the telecommunications market in Greece fits perfectly with our ambitions for Forthnet.”

Georgiopoulos takes over from Dimitrios Tzelepis, who as interim CEO has for the past several months been leading the business and the integration process into the Group from the side of Forthnet. Tzelepis will return to his previous role as Forthnet’s CFO on 1 April and continue on as part of the company’s management team.

Georgiopoulos’s professional achievements include a highly successful transformation program at Vodafone Greece, closing of M&A transactions, fixed sales growth, and driving NPS to historical highs.

Prior to Vodafone, Georgiopoulos worked for organisations including McKinsey & Company, Teleperformance, Dell, and General Motors.

United Group entered the Greek market in 2020 with the acquisition of Forthnet, a provider of home entertainment and communications services with around 1,000 employees and nearly 1.4 million revenue-generating units (RGUs). The acquisition expanded the Dutch-based Group’s markets to eight countries across Southeast Europe.