Telecommunications group MTN has announced a major shake-up of executive responsibilities, with a series of new senior appointments at group level and at its key operations in South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana.
MTN Ghana CEO Michael Ikpoki has been named as the new CEO of the Nigerian business, while South African chief marketing officer Serame Taukobong will take the reins at the Ghanaian operation.
Ikpoki replaces Brett Goschen, who took on the role of group chief financial officer and executive financial director on the board on Monday, replacing Nazir Patel, who resigned “with immediate effect” pending an investigation reportedly related to corporate governance issues.
Ikpoki was appointed CEO of MTN Ghana in April 2011 after running MTN Nigeria’s sales and distribution channel from 2006. He joined MTN in 2001 as a regulatory advisor after a six-year stint with the Nigerian Communications Commission’s legal division.
Taukobong was appointed group marketing and sales executive for MTN International in 2002, after joining from M-Net, where he was marketing director. Two years after joining MTN, he became the chief operations officer at MTN Uganda.
In 2006, he assumed the role of sales and distribution executive at MTN Irancell. He returned to the group head office as executive for global brand and sponsorships in 2007 and became South Africa chief marketing officer in 2009.
Meanwhile, Brian Gouldie, chief customer sales, service and distribution officer at MTN South Africa, has been named as the new chief marketing officer, replacing Taukobong in the position. Farhad Khan, executive for the group enterprise business unit, will take over Gouldie’s old position.
Khan is a former CEO of MTN Zambia. He was also the executive for marketing and customer relations at MTN Irancell. Gouldie, meanwhile, has experience in finance, billing and collections, systems development, call centre management, procurement and distribution.
Philisiwe Sibiya, executive in group finance, has been named as the new chief financial officer of MTN South Africa, taking over from Zunaid Bulbulia, who recently replaced Karel Pienaar as South Africa CEO. Pienaar has moved into the group head office, where he is now chief strategy officer.
Prior to joining MTN, Sibiya worked for Arthur Anderson, Primedia and Cell C. She has held various positions in MTN’s group finance function in the last seven years, including consolidations, management reporting and technical accounting. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
