One of MTN’s very first employees, Karel Pienaar, who has been with the telecommunications group for more than two decades and who was instrumental in the founding of the business, is stepping down.

Pienaar was most recently group chief strategy officer, but he has held a range of senior positions in the group since its founding in the early 1990s.

His departure comes amid a major restructuring at MTN and an overhaul of management, which has seen the appointment of a chief operating officer, long-serving MTN executive Jyoti Desai, and the restructuring of the group into three reporting regions.

In an SMS in response to a query from TechCentral, Pienaar said both his daughters now live in Australia. “It is time I spent more time with them,” he said.

TechCentral understands that Pienaar’s retirement has been on the cards for some time — at least the past 12 months — and that his exit is not directly related to the restructuring announced on Thursday.

Pienaar, 57, has previously served as MTN’s group chief technology officer as well as head of its Nigerian and South African operations.

Prior to helping establish MTN, Pienaar was business development manager at pay-TV operator MultiChoice. It was while working at MultiChoice, around 1990, that he identified cellular as a big business opportunity.

In 1994, he and his team secured a licence for South Africa’s second mobile operator, along with Vodacom. He was involved in selecting MTN’s early shareholders and was instrumental in selecting an overseas operator — Cable & Wireless — to help the bid team.