Essar Communications Holdings Ltd (ECHL), the telecom subsidiary of Essar Global has appointed Michael P Foley as Chief Executive Officer, East Africa. Foley will have overall responsibility for the group's telecom investments and operations in the region. He will oversee the roll out and launch of Econet Wireless Kenya.
A telecom and marketing professional for over 25 years, Foley brings on board commercial and management experience gained from a number of leading telcos in Canada, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Tanzania and Nigeria.
An experienced executive, consultant and speaker on telecom issues, he previously served with Celtel as Managing Director Tanzania and as Chief Commercial Officer in Nigeria. He has also served as Group Chief Commercial Officer for Emirates International Telecommunications (Dubai, Malta, Tunisia, and London).
Foley, began his career in Canada with Procter & Gamble Inc before moving to the telecom sector with New Brunswick Telephone and Bell Canada. He was President of @Home Networks (Canada), Vice President of Excite@Home (US) and served on the Board of Excite.ca. Michael has held executive level telecom roles in Eastern Europe, Iraq, UAE, Tunisia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, among others.
Early in the year, ECHL announced the acquisition of a 49 per cent stake in Econet Wireless International Ltd (EWI) by subscribing to fresh capital in the company. Essar will actively participate with EWI in the network rollout of Econet Wireless Kenya.
Econet Wireless Kenya has also announced three senior leadership appointments. The new appointees are Shailendra Khare as the Chief Technical Officer, Philip Mudimu as Project Director (East Africa) and Anna Othoro as Marketing Director.
These appointments are in line with Kenya's third mobile telephone provider's plan to employ a management team with extensive regional and global experience in order to give much needed throttle to a dynamic yet critical sector.
Equally, the senior appointees have notched up experience in various leadership positions in various telecommunications facets regionally and across the globe.
Shailendra Khare brings on board over 20 years technical experience with the last 13 years in the Cellular Networks domain. Prior to joining Econet as CTO – East Africa, he held a number of senior positions in IBM, Nokia & Reliance Infocomm.
He has extensive experience in Planning, Roll-out & Operations of cellular networks. He has also handled Managed Services role for a leading operator in India. His global experience spans assignments in the India, the Middle East & Africa.
Philip Mudimu is a veteran of Econet and has played an instrumental role in steering the company through the last 5 years. Philip will lead regulatory and government relations and will also focus on development activities outside of Kenya. Philip has 27 years of telecom experience. After working with the Zimbabwean Posts & Telecommunications, he joined Econet Wireless International where he was a senior executive in Nigeria, South Africa and most recently in Kenya when he joined Econet Wireless Kenya in 2002.
Anna Othoro is well known in the mobile telephony circles from her stint in a similar position at Celtel Kenya. Anna's appointment is significant given her understanding of the local mobile telephony marketing terrain She has an expansive experience in commercial management (Sales and Marketing) spanning over 11 years having held various senior management positions at both a local and international level with GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd and most recently Marketing Director of Celtel Kenya Ltd.
She has specialised in launching new products both in East Africa and the Middle East and has a strong record of achievement in the competitive fast moving consumer goods markets.
She is a seasoned marketer with an Upper Second Class Honors Degree from the University of Nairobi and a MBA in Marketing from the United States International University. |
