Network equipment developer Ericsson-LG said Monday that the board of directors has appointed Patrick Johansson, vice president of the firm’s business unit radio, as new chief executive of the company.

Johansson, who will be responsible for all Ericsson-LG business operations in Korea, joined Ericsson in 1997 and has since then held various management positions and served as a board of director member for Ericsson-LG from 2012.

In addition, he worked at Ericsson’s offices in India, Austria, China and Vietnam.

Ericsson-LG, a joint venture founded by the Swedish group Ericsson and South Korean tech giant LG Electronics in 2005, is one of the three leading mobile network builders in Korea along with Samsung Electronics and Nokia.

Samsung reportedly is the No. 1 network equipment maker in Korea, taking up around 40 percent of the local telecommunications equipment market, while Nokia and Ericsson-LG compete for second place.

By Kim Young-won  (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)