Nokia Siemens Networks has appointed Ken Wirth as head of Customer Operations for North and Latin America.

In this role Wirth will be responsible for the company’s sales throughout the Americas and will join the company’s Executive Board. Previously, Wirth was president of the End-to-End Networks business at Alcatel Lucent. Wirth will join the company on April 23, 2012 reporting to the chief executive officer, Rajeev Suri.

Wirth has spent much of his career in leading roles in the telecommunications industry. He played an important part in building Alcatel-Lucent’s global LTE business with Verizon, AT&T, China Mobile, Telefonica and other leading operators. Before that Wirth held a range of leadership positions at Alcatel-Lucent, including heading the company’s 4G/LTE business unit and serving as president of the Verizon customer team.

“Ken is an ideal addition to the Nokia Siemens Networks team at a time when we are seeing increasing market recognition of our technological strength, and strong momentum in our LTE sales,” said Suri. “I look forward to him joining us during this key period of mobile broadband evolution.”