Vantage Towers has appointed Tobias Steinig as chief information officer (CIO).

Steinig, who took up his role at the company on February 1, has been tasked with "leading the digital transformation" of the European tower operator, which is majority-owned by Vodafone.

Steinig will also be responsible for standardizing the groupwide IT landscape, and will report to CEO Christian Hillabrant.

He will also become a member of the executive committee of Vantage Towers.

"As a tower company, we are contributing to the digital transformation in Europe on a daily basis. The foundation for this is, among other things, the ongoing digital transformation of our organization itself. To advance this even more consistently in future, we have created the new position of CIO," said Hillabrant, who was appointed CEO in June.

Prior to joining Düsseldorf-based Vantage, Steinig was MD and senior VP for global IT infrastructure and operations at Dekra. He has previously worked at VOITH Robotics and Kuka.

"I am delighted to become part of this successful and fast-growing company, which is a driving force of 4G and 5G expansion across Europe," added Steinig.

"Together with my team, I will dedicate myself to the task of further developing processes and IT solutions and ensuring that our digital infrastructure becomes even more efficient and resilient."

In November 2022, Vodafone sold off some of its Vantage Towers unit, creating a new joint venture called Oak Holdings with KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in the process.

The deal valued the tower unit at €16.1 billion ($17.3bn), giving the operator €3.2 billion ($3.4bn) in minimum net cash proceeds, which the operator will use to pay down its debt.

In July, Vodafone agreed to sell more shares in Vantage Towers to its partner consortium that jointly owns the tower unit, pocketing €500 million ($536m) in the process.

Oak Holdings today owns an 89 percent stake in Vantage Towers. Vodafone has a 60 percent stake in Oak Holdings.