Officially board member for Europe, she will take over on 1 November from Srini Gopalan, who will assume responsibility for Deutsche Telekom’s Germany segment at the same time.
Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges said: “We won’t stop. … She has over 30 years of experience in the consumer goods and telecommunications industry and knows our industry like the back of her hand.”
The announcement comes a year after an unhappy September 2019 for Leroy, who at the start of the month announced she was going to leave Proximus in Belgium to cross the Dutch border to be CEO of KPN.
Within days, however, Belgian police searched her house after allegations that she sold €285,000 worth of shares in her old company, a few weeks before she left. KPN withdrew its job offer.
Accused of insider dealing, in July 2020, according to the Brussels Times, she agreed to pay €107,841 to have the case against her dropped.
She insisted that at the time she sold her shares, in May 2019, she was not in discussions with KPN but was talking about extending her Proximus contract – so no insider trading was involved.
Höttges said: “I know Dominique Leroy from many meetings in Brussels. There she will also provide us with very good support in our political and regulatory work.”
Leroy said: “I am looking forward to the new challenge and am extremely pleased to join a strong team at the board of directors of Deutsche Telekom. I want to bring my experience to further grow the Europe segment and contribute to the overall group strategy.”
After a career at Unilever, Leroy joined Proximus – formerly Belgacom – in 2011, where she became head of its consumer business, and then group CEO from 2014.
