Hamilton Ratshefola has been named as the new country manager at IBM South Africa. He replaces Abraham Thomas, who has been in the role for the past three years.
Ratshefola is a long-serving IBM executive and is being promoted from his current role as director of general business in the South African operation.
As country manager, Ratshefola will be responsible for all of IBM’s sales, marketing, services and global delivery operations in South Africa. He returned to IBM in 2012 from Cornastone, an IBM business partner he founded 12 years earlier.
He began his career as an IBM graduate hire in 1990, starting as a mainframe systems engineer in the banking and retail environment before moving across into the sales operation.
He was then promoted into a series of management and industry leadership positions and has held various roles with IBM in the UK, Italy, Denmark and the US.
“Ratshefola has been instrumental in leading the transformation of IBM South Africa with a focus on using technologies such as big data and analytics to solve key local challenges including improving government services, digitising banking services and enhancing customer centricity in telecommunications,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the statement, Ratshefola will oversee the roll-out of the company’s recently announced R700m investment programme in high-tech skills development as well as the opening of a new Research Lab in Braamfontein in 2016.
Thomas, meanwhile, is moving to Singapore. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media