The shake-up of the top management team at MTN continues. The South African-headquartered emerging-markets telecommunications group has hired Jens Schulte-Bockum as its new chief operating officer, replacing Jyoti Desai, who is retiring.
At the same time, the group has announced it is hiring BT Global Services sub-Saharan Africa CEO Oliver Fortuin as executive head of business enterprise and Bernice Samuels as group executive of marketing.
Schulte-Bockum will assume the position of group COO effective 16 January 2017. Schulte-Bockum was CEO of Vodafone Germany between 2012 and 2015.
“We expect Jens to bring extensive experience in the consumer business, as well as the area of large-scale transformation in a convergent operation,” MTN said in a statement to shareholders on Wednesday.
Fortuin, meanwhile, will join MTN on 1 March 2017 from BT Global Services. Fortuin has decades of ICT sector experience at companies such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo.
“As head of BT Global Services, Oliver was engaged in the development and sale of enterprise solutions to many multinationals across the African continent. Oliver will greatly enhance MTN’s strategy in this area,” MTN said.
Samuels, meanwhile, is a familiar face at MTN. She was previously chief marketing officer at MTN South Africa, prior to assuming a similar role at First National Bank. After leaving FNB, she was named executive director of strategy and business development at SABMiller in South Africa.
“These senior management appointments bring to finality the management aspect of a large-scale transformation and operational review process which I am confident will place the group in good stead to capitalise on its many prospects and reach its full potential in a rapidly transforming and exciting sector,” said MTN interim executive chairman Phuthuma Nhleko in the statement.  — © 2016 NewsCentral Media
