Former Vodacom and Vodafone executive Rob Shuter has been named as the new president and CEO of telecommunications group MTN after an extensive search.
Shuter, who is a previous chief financial officer at Vodacom and who most recently was CEO of the Europe cluster at Vodafone, will, however, only join MTN in 2017.
“Rob may commence as soon as it is practicably possible in 2017 but not later than 1 July 2017 after the completion of his current contractual obligations,” MTN said.
It said Shuter has “extensive experience in telecoms and banking having held senior management roles at Vodacom Group, Standard Bank and Nedbank prior to joining Vodafone Group”.
“MTN is confident that Rob will bring experience and new insights to the CEO role having had many years in the telecoms sector both in Africa and Europe as well as in banking where his expertise will help as MTN continues to develop its new business strategy.”
MTN chairman Phuthuma Nhleko has been acting in the CEO role since last November when former CEO Sifiso Dabengwa resigned following the imposition of a record-breaking fine on the group’s Nigerian subsidiary.
Nhleko, who assumed the position of executive chairman on 9 November last year, will revert to his role as nonexecutive chairman as soon as Shuter assumes his new position.
“Until then, in order to facilitate a smooth transition, MTN Group chief financial officer Brett Goschen and a new vice-president for mergers & acquisitions and strategy will assume clearly defined additional responsibilities under the guidance of the executive chairman,” MTN said.
“Phuthuma remains fully committed to the MTN Group and will continue to provide the necessary leadership as nonexecutive chairman for the next two-and-a-half years when he plans to step down as chairman.”
News of the appointment of Shuter comes just days after MTN successfully reached an agreement to settle the fine imposed by the Nigerian Communications Commission after failing to disconnect more than 5m unregistered Sim cards.
MTN has agreed to pay $1,7bn at the official Nigerian exchange rate to settle the matter — a two-thirds reduction in the size of the fine originally imposed. It has also agreed to list its Nigerian operation in Lagos.
Shuter is not the only new appointment to the group.
The new vice-president for mergers & acquisitions and strategy will take up the role on 1 October 2016. His name will be announced before 30 June.
“The appointee has a wealth of banking experience. His substantial commercial experience will assist in the formulation of a revised strategy for MTN, particularly in the area of convergence between mobile telephony and financial services,” MTN said.
Meanwhile, as expected, Godfrey Motsa, formerly with Vodacom, has been named to head up MTN operations in the Southern and East Africa region from 1 July 2016.
Motsa’s decision to leave Vodacom for MTN late last year resulted in the former imposing its restraint of trade on him, perhaps explaining why MTN said South Africa will be specifically excluded from his portfolio.
Meanwhile, MTN has said it will refresh its board to improve the risk and governance profile of the group. To this end it has appointed Paul Hanratty, Stan Miller and Nkululeko Sowazi to the group board.
Mike Harper, Lerato Phalatse, Mike Bosman and Trudy Makhaya have been appointed to the MTN South Africa board.
“MTN has weathered a rather difficult storm and will continue to review its governance and management operating structure to ensure that it operates at an optimum level and continues to replenish management talent to ensure a sustained growth of the business,” Nhleko said. — (c) 2016 NewsCentral Media
