Romil Bahl is stepping down this week as president and chief executive officer of IoT specialist KORE. Ronald Totton will act as the company’s interim president, effective May 3.

Bahl has served as KORE’s CEO since 2017. He has led the KORE 3.0 vision and growth strategy that has enabled the company to triple the number of IoT connected devices it supports globally, expanded its portfolio of services, and guided KORE to five consecutive years in the Gartner Leaders quadrant for IoT-managed services.

[Bahl was also elected Chairman of the IoT M2M Council (IMC) in 2022, having served as the group’s Vice Chair the year before. For an IMC statement on Bahl’s leaving KORE, please see below.]

He also led the transformation of the company resulting in KORE’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange. In mutual agreement with the board, he will end his role as president and CEO on May 3, 2024.

“Romil has been a fantastic leader for us,” said Tim Donahue, chairman of the board. “From our first meeting back in 2020, I have had the utmost respect for Romil’s work ethic and integrity, his strategic thinking, and his focus on the customer value proposition.”

Bahl said it had been an honour and a privilege to lead KORE over the past six and a half years.

“I would like to thank our global team of IoTers, without whom none of our successes would have been possible,” he said. “KORE is now well positioned for the decade of IoT, with an industry-leading eSIM proposition, pre-configured solutions in health, fleet and high bandwidth applications, and a one-stop shop of services that help simplify IoT deployments.”

Totton, who will succeed Bahl, brings nearly three decades of strategy, finance, sales and leadership experience to the president and CEO role, including many years in the technology, media and telecoms sector. Prior to joining KORE, Totton served as chief executive officer of ST Telemedia Cloud (Temasek Holdings) and executive vice president at ST Telemedia Group. He previously held leadership roles at BT Global Services, including chief executive officer for northern, central and eastern Europe, and Russia, as well as managing director for south-east Asia. In addition to his executive roles, Totton held a number of directorship roles for both ST Telemedia Group and BT Global Services.

“Ron is an accomplished executive in the telecom sector and beyond,” said Donahue. “He has a track record of leading innovative businesses towards growth and transformation, and he will serve KORE’s stakeholders well. We are very fortunate to have a leader of Ron’s calibre join the KORE team.”

Totton added, “KORE has long been recognised as a pioneer in the IoT space, an innovative and flexible partner that creates meaningful impact for customers. KORE’s next chapter builds on this foundation to even better serve our customers and deliver enhanced value for stockholders. There are incredible opportunities ahead for the company and this team.”

KORE says the management change is not the result of any material or unexpected financial events.

The company made a grant to Totton of 250,000 restricted stock units (RSUs), where each RSU represents the right to receive one share of the company’s common stock upon the terms and conditions of the related RSU award agreement. The grant of RSUs was offered as a material inducement to Totton’s hiring.

KORE (korewireless.com) delivers mission critical IoT services. It empowers organisations of all sizes to improve operational and business results by simplifying the complexity of IoT.

IMC Statement on Romil Bahl Departure from KORE

The IoT M2M Council is sorry to see Romil Bahl step down as CEO of IoT managed service provider KORE this week and, on the IMC’s tenth anniversary, we would like to thank Bahl for his key role in our group’s recent expansion. In addition to establishing KORE as one of the leading connectivity providers in the IoT sector, including the company’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange, Bahl was instrumental in positioning the IMC on its current growth trajectory during his time as our group’s Chairman in 2022, and in the previous year, when he served as Vice Chair.

“Romil Bahl served with distinction in the IMC leadership team,” said IMC Executive Director Keith Kreisher, “He was instrumental in developing some of our educational outreach programs for IoT adopters that make up our rank-and-file membership, including our template sourcing documents (RFPs) and guidelines. He was also a driving force behind the increase in the number of Sustaining Member companies, which almost doubled during his tenure in leadership.” The IMC currently lists over 30 companies as Sustainers on its Board of Governors, and the group boasts 28,000 Adopter Members.

“We certainly hope that Romil will stay within the IoT sector – our industry needs more people of his integrity and work rate,” said Kreisher.

To read an interview with Romil about KORE’s work with the IMC click here