Western Europe
UK incumbent BT has promoted Olivia Garfield, its group
director of strategy and regulatory affairs, to CEO of its network
business Openreach.
Garfield will replace Steve Robertson, who has led
Openreach since its foundation in 2005….
Western Europe
UK incumbent BT has promoted Olivia Garfield, its group
director of strategy and regulatory affairs, to CEO of its network
business Openreach.
Garfield will replace Steve Robertson, who has led
Openreach since its foundation in 2005. Garfield, a vocal
endorser of public private partnerships, assumed her new
position on 1 April.
Sean Williams, strategy head at BT Retail, will replace her as
group strategy director.
Danish incumbent TDC will promote Pernille Erenbjerg, the
group’s VP for financial services, to CFO on 1 May. Erenbjerg
replaces Jesper Ovesen, who has resigned after three years
to seek new challenges. It is thought he seeking a new CFO
opportunity elsewhere.
Anders Jensen, currently CEO of mobile operator Telenor
Hungary, became VP at TDC’s consumer division on 1 April.
Jensen, who has held various executive management
positions at Telenor over the last ten years, will replace Jesper
Theill Eriksen, who is resigning to allow a “new perspective on
the business”. Eriksen’s next role remained unclear at the time
of going to press.
Dutch cableco Ziggo has reportedly abandoned efforts
to find a new CEO in preparation for a possible IPO of the
company. Bernard Dijkhuizen will remain at the helm for a
further three years, contrary to reports that the company’s
owners were looking for a management change.
UK enterprise telco Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW)
has announced that Tim Weller will step down as CFO in July
after less than a year in the role.
Deputy CFO Ian Gibson will replace Weller.
Both Weller and Gibson were appointed to their respective
positions in May 2010, following CWW’s demerger from Cable
& Wireless earlier in the year.
Alexander Lautz decided to leave his position as CEO of
Deutsche Telekom’s low-end DSL and mobile brand Congstar
on 31 March, to become head of marketing and services at
T-Mobile’s connected car division
Guido Scheffler will become the interim CEO at Congstar
until a replacement is found.
Swiss mobile operator Sunrise has announced that CFO
Christian Huetwohl plans to step down at the end of April to
pursue new opportunities.
A successor for Huetwohl has yet to be found.
Manx Telecom, the leading operator on the UK’s Isle of
Man, has promoted finance director Mike Dee to MD.
Dee replaces Chris Hall, who takes up the newly-created
role of deputy chairman, where he will focus on promoting the
company’s data centre operations.
Manx, which was acquired by CPS Partners and Hg Capital
from Spanish incumbent Telefonica last June for £158.5m, is
still searching for a new FD.
German fixed-phone maker Gigaset has appointed
Alexander Blum as its new CFO and board member. Blum
joined Gigaset in 2008 to manage its successful restructuring
process.
UK-based private equity firm GMT Communications
Partners (GMT) has appointed Microsoft UK executive Ashley
Highfield to its GMT Industry Council.
Highfield heads up Microsoft’s UK Consumer & Online
activities, including online advertising. Previous positions
include CEO at VOD venture Kangaroo and Director of New
Media & Technology at the BBC, where he was responsible for
launching the BBC iPlayer.
Nordic telecoms solutions provider Elisa has re-elected
the five members of its board, including Risto Siilasmaa as
chairman and Raimo Lind as deputy chairman.
The other re-elected members of the board were Ari
Lehtoranta, Leena Niemisto and Eira Palin-Lehtinen.
UK cableco Virgin Media has appointed Jamie Heywood
as director of its mobile business, replacing Jonathan Kini.
Heywood has been CEO of Virgin Mobile in both India and
China, and has also worked for the UK and Thai businesses
of Orange. Kini has moved to Virgin Media’s customer and
operations department.
Norwegian ISP NextGenTel has announced the departure
of CEO Jan Dagfinn Midtun as part of efforts to revitalize its
broadband business. CFO Odd Bjorn Ur will serve as interim
CEO until a replacement can be found for Midtun..
The Irish government has appointed Pat Rabbitte as the
country’s new Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural
Resources.
Middle East
Kuwait-based telco Zain Group has announced two senior
appointments.
Zain Jordan CEO Dr. Abdul Malek Al Jaber will become
Group COO, while keeping his current position. Zain Kuwait
CEO, Khalid Al Omar, meanwhile, will keep his current role and
become Group CTO, a position he previously held.
Al Jaber has been at Zain Jordan CEO since July 2009,
before which time he was vice-chairman and CEO of
Palestinian telco Paltel Group for six years. Al Omar has been
at Zain since 1986, rising through the ranks to become Zain
Group COO and then CTO from November 2008 and June
2010, at which time he was named Kuwait CEO.
Last month, Zain announced that COO Barrak al-Subaith
was to step down due to “personal commitments”, which is the same reason given by chief strategy and business
development officer Haitham al-Khaled, and also Salah al-
Fouzan, who advises CEO Nabil Bin Salama.
Stella Handler, who this month stepped down as CEO of
Israeli ISP 012 Smile, has quickly re-emerged as the new
chairman of HOT Cable and MIRS Communications.
She will replace Dexter Goei and report to French
businessman Patrick Drahi, who owns 45% of HOT via Cool
Holdings.
Israeli mobile operator Partner Communications, which
operates as Orange, has appointed Offer Peri as CEO of its
newly acquired ISP subsidiary 012 Smile Telecom. He took
over from the previous CEO, Stella Handler, on 1 April.
Africa
South African telecoms operator Telkom has appointed
Nombulelo (Pinky) Moholi as CEO. Moholi initially joined Telkom
in 1994, but left the company in 2005 to become chief strategy
and corporate affairs officer at Nedbank. She rejoined the
operator as MD of Telkom South Africa in May 2009.
The contract of the acting CEO Jeffrey Hedberg expired at
the end of March and Moholi took up her new position on 1
April.
The president and CEO of South African mobile group MTN,
Phuthuma Nhleko, has resigned, with COO Sifiso Dabengwa
reportedly expected to replace him.
Nhleko has also stepped down from the boards of
subsidiaries MTN Dubai, MTN South Africa, MTN Nigeria
Communications, MTN Irancell and MTN Syria.
The resignation took effect on 31 March. Nhleko joined MTN
in 2001 as chairman and became group president and CEO a
year later.
Asia/Pacific
South Korean telecom operator SK Telecom has appointed
Ha Sung Min as its new CEO.
He will take over from Jung Man Won, who has reportedly
been appointed as vice-chairman of parent company SK
Group. Ha Sung Min previously served as president of the
mobile network operator business of SK Telecom.
SK also announced the appointment of So Jin Woo as co-
CEO. He was previously the president of the platform business
at the mobile operator.
Incumbent Telekom Malaysia (TM) has renewed the contract
of its CEO, Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, for another three years.
He has been working for the incumbent since 2008 when it
was demerged from Malaysian telco Axiata.
Similarly, a month ago, Axiata announced it renewed the
contract of its CEO Jamaludin Ibrahim for another three years.
Jirayuth Roongsrithong, the president of Thai state-owned
telco CAT Telecom has reportedly failed to pass his six-month
performance review and could be dismissed.
The company’s directors will now reportedly decide on future
action with Roongsrithong, which could involve dismissal.
D. K. Ghosh, the MD and chairman of the Indian operations
of Chinese vendor ZTE, is leaving the company to become the
head of a new technology company focused on consulting and
infrastructure.
Chinese vendor Huawei has announced that it will create an
Australian board of directors, having never before employed a
localised board for its operations in a foreign country.
Linktone, the Chinese mobile entertainment group, has
announced that its deputy CEO and CFO Colin Sung is to step
down to pursue other unspecified interests.
Peck Joo Tan, a company director, will take over as CFO.
She has also been MD of the international business division
of Media Nusantara Citra, the indirect majority shareholder of
Linktone, since 2010. Previous to her current roles, she has
worked for companies including MediaCorp, Heinz, Pepsi,
Starbucks and Delifrance.
Billy Hsieh has been appointed as an independent director
and member of the audit committee, replacing Thomas Hubbs,
who is resigning to pursue other unspecified career moves.
Hsieh worked at consultancy PwC from 1986 until 2010,
advising multinationals on doing business in China.
The Thai Ministry of Finance has named seven executives to
serve as directors for state-owned telco TOT.
The new directors are Suchart Boonbanjerdsri, Prasit
Siripakorn, Wisarn Wuttisaksilp, Sayarn Satangmongkol,
Taveesilp Hiriwattanasiri, Prapan Boonyakiat and Poranont
Thitiwanno.
In March, several TOT directors resigned, fearing a potential
legal backlash after the state-owned company sought
compensation from cellcos amid the mobile concession
dispute.
Americas
Joseph Euteneuer has joined US telco Sprint Nextel as
CFO, replacing Bob Brust, who is retiring. Euteneuer previously
worked as executive vice president and CFO at Qwest
Communications.
US WiMax operator Clearwire’s CEO, Bill Morrow, has
resigned. He will be replaced on an interim basis by John
Stanton, the current chairman. CCO Mike Sievert and CIO
Kevin Hart, are also leaving the company. CFO Erik Prusch has
been promoted to the new position of COO, while SVP and
treasurer Hans Cochran has been promoted to CFO.
