Ulf Ewaldsson does not seem like a man facing one of the most daunting tasks in telecom. With his ready smile and lilting Swedish accent, the head of Ericsson’s newish digital services business appears unflappably calm. But the company he works for is in turmoil: Following a sequence of earnings setbacks, Ericsson is desperately trying to restore profitability to historical levels without sabotaging its future prospects. That challenge falls heavily on the shoulders of Ewaldsson.

That’s partly because of his status within the company. Formerly Ericsson’s chief technology officer, Ewaldsson seems to have been instrumental in developing the latest, margin-focused plan, taking charge of strategy back in September. Since March, however, and with Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) in plan-implementation mode, Ewaldsson has been leading a new-look digital services business that forms a major part of the IT and cloud division — one of three big units, the others being networks and media, that Ericsson now operates.

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