Friese-Greene was previously head of European marketing at Nintendo Europe, but quit after a month citing personal reasons for his departure.
He reports to senior vice-president strategy and marketing Jens-Thomas Pietralla and is based in Munich. Friese-Greene will be responsible for leading consumer marketing in emerging markets such as Central and South America.
Siemens has come under criticism for not being a consumer-driven brand, and Friese-Greene's position will involve addressing shifting consumer markets.
Before joining Nintendo, he was a senior marketer at Grundig's new media subsidiary and it is hoped he can put his expertise in emerging technologies to good use.
Friese-Greene joins Siemens as the global mobile market is changing and consumer demand is shifting from mid-range mobile phones to low and high-range phones. His appointment follows Siemens Mobile's biggest-ever global launch at the end of October in New York, that saw the company unveil the S55 in Europe, the S57 in Asia and five new phones for the US market, in addition to a multi-million dollar marketing campaign for North America.
Also in October, Siemens awarded its global media account to OMD, the Omnicom Group media agency.
Last November McCann-Erickson ousted J Walter Thompson from the international creative account for Siemens mobile devices and in August this year, Siemens selected Mother and Naked to handle the global launch of its range of mobile phone hardware aimed specifically at the youth market.
Mother has never worked with a client in the telecoms sector, but has acquired a reputation for successful ad campaigns for youth-orientated brands.
Siemens is Europe's number two mobile phone manufacturer with a market share of 16.1%, and world number four. It is significantly behind the European leader, Nokia which has a 48.6% share. Siemens saw its sales rise better than the market during the third quarter, rising 12.9% to 8.1 million for a 7.8% world market share.
.jpg)
.jpg)