Telecom Executive Moves – First Weeks Of August

telco moves August 2020

Welcome to another installment of Telco Moves!

Your biweekly guide to the notable hires, promotions and leadership changes in the global Telecom and ICT community.

Here are some of the major executive moves announcements from the first half of August 2020.

 

Oracle

Oracle Alliances Chief Camillo Speroni Announces His Exit

Camillo Speroni, who oversaw Oracle’s channel organization and tech alliances for the last six years, said he’s leaving the company.

“In this new normal where change represents, drives and inspires a daily challenge to the ‘status quo’, I have made the most difficult decision of my professional career. I have decided to leave #oracle,” Speroni wrote on LinkedIn.

Before coming to Oracle in December of 2014, Speroni worked for eight years at Novell, and then three in channel leadership positions at CA Technologies. Under his charge, Oracle implemented a massive revamp of its PartnerNetwork channel program that went into effect at the end of last year.

 

DCI Data Centers

DCI Data Centers names new CTO

DCI Data Centers has appointed Verghese Jacob as its first chief technology officer (CTO) as part of the company’s push to increase its share in the regional data centre market.

The new appointment is part of an investment in the company from parent Brookfield, which purchased DCI in January 2019. It follows the appointment of Malcolm Roe in April and was described by a DCI spokesperson as “Part of a massive investment to grow the business across APAC”.

Jacob joins DCI after running his own data centre project management and consulting company, FMevolution, which he founded in 2007. He also held project management roles at Metronode (Equinix), ASG and Pacnet (Telstra).

 

Hitachi Vantara

Hitachi Vantara appoints Erin Mikan as ANZ channel chief

Digital data systems vendor Hitachi Vantara has appointed Erin Mikan as its channel sales manager for Australia and New Zealand.

Mikan was hired out of Macquarie Telecom, working as cloud services – strategic partner and alliance manager.

Mikan said she was happy to return to a channel-facing role and said Hitachi Vantara is “a vendor that ticks all the boxes.”

 

Vodafone

Ronald Prasad appointed as Acting CEO of Vodafone Fiji

Vodafone Fiji has announced the appointment of Ronald Prasad as its Acting Chief Executive Officer.

Prasad has previously held Chief Commercial and Operating Officer positions in the company and brings with him a wealth of experience, having worked in both the public and private sectors. Prior to joining Vodafone in 2007, Ronald Prasad has worked for the Judiciary, Legal Aid Commission and Exxon Mobil. 

Vodafone Fiji says Ronald Prasad has over 14 years experience in the telecommunications and ICT industry and has been instrumental in the transformation journey to position Vodafone as a trusted and respected ICT solutions provider.

 

OnMobile

OnMobile names Krish Seshadri as CEO to enhance gaming biz

OnMobile Global Limited announced the appointment of Krish Seshadri as Chief Executive Officer for the company, effective 03 August 2020.

Krish Seshadri joins OnMobile with over two decades of experience leading technology, digital & mobile product businesses across APAC, US and Europe. Most recently, Krish was CEO of Monster.com’s operations across APAC & Middle East. Previously, he held leadership roles at social gaming pioneer Zynga, digital content leader AOL-Verizon and Facebook. 

Earlier this year OnMobile had acquired a stake in rob0, an AI-powered visual retention analytics product created for game developers. In 2018, OnMobile acquired Appland AB, a pioneer in mobile app distribution and monetization. These investments reaffirm the importance of OnMobile’s strategy to become a leader in the global mobile gaming market.

 

FirstLight

FirstLight announces three new additions to ELT

The company, which provides fiber-optic data, internet, data center, cloud and voice services, has named its new COO, CMO and CCO.

Former IMS Technologies COO Doug Derstine will bring his 25 years of telecom industry experience to FirstLight as he oversees all aspects of sales, customer operations, network operations, construction services and outside plant. FirstLight said his “strong operating background will help further FirstLight’s growth objectives and operational strategy”.

Promoted to chief marketing officer, Maura Mahoney brings more than 25 years of experience in telecoms. She has been a member of the FirstLight senior team since 2013, and has “led the company through transformative events and sharpened its vision for the future”.

Promoted to chief construction officer, Todd Warmingham will assist the company in its fibre build plan and will offer turn-key solutions to meet customer needs. Warmingham joined FirstLight after its 2019 acquisition of Todd Cable Construction and already leads an experienced team of construction professionals working on network expansion initiatives, including the recent expansion into Eastern Pennsylvania.

 

MTN & BT

MTN to name a new CEO soon; Rob Shuter to join BT

Rob Shuter, the outgoing president and CEO of MTN Group, will join BT Group (formerly British Telecom) as CEO of the company’s Enterprise unit and will become a member of BT’s executive committee.
 
Shuter, who announced earlier this year that he would leave MTN in March 2021, was CEO of Vodafone’s European cluster before he returned to South Africa to join MTN. He is also a previous chief financial officer at Vodacom Group and has held senior roles in South Africa’s banking sector.
 
Shuter will replace Gerry McQuade at BT Enterprise. McQuade is retiring after more than a decade with the group.
 

MTN will announce Shuter’s successor in the next four to eight weeks, South Africa’s biggest mobile operator by subscribers said in a separate statement.

 

NTT

NTT names new CEO for merged A/NZ business

NTT Ltd. announced the appointment of Tania Balcombe as Chief Executive Officer for NTT Ltd. in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). The changes follow the recent announcement that, after 31 years with the NTT family, Steve Nola will retire on 30 September 2020.

Tania has worked for the NTT family for over 14 years, most recently as both the Chief Marketing and Go-to-Market Officer for NTT Ltd. in Australia. Prior to that, she was the General Manager for part of the Australia business, transforming NTT’s relationship with many of its clients whilst creating and delivering on a new business plan for Victoria.

NTT also announced that it will bring together the business operations of its Australia and New Zealand entities to create an ‘ANZ region’ which in turn will operate together with the wider APAC region. 

 

Ericsson

Ericsson appoints David Hägerbro as Head of Ericsson Sri Lanka, Malaysia & Bangladesh

Ericsson announced the appointment of David Hägerbro as Head of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh and Global Customer Unit Axiata. Prior to taking on his new role, David was Head of Strategy, Technology & Government & Industry Relations, for South East Area, Oceania and India.

David Hägerbro has over 20 years of experience in leadership and technology roles and joined Ericsson in 2008. He has held various roles across sales, management, technology, strategy and government relations and has been leading and successfully developing the business across many different countries including Sweden, Indonesia, Malaysia and India.

 

DZS

DZS Names Charlie Vogt President and CEO

DASAN Zhone Solutions, Inc. announced it has appointed Charlie Vogt as president, CEO and director effective August 1. Vogt, a distinguished information technology and communications executive, joins DZS from ATX Networks, where he remains a member of the board. He succeeds Yung Kim, who has retired after a successful 40-year international telecommunications career and nearly four years at the helm of DZS.

A lifelong entrepreneur, Vogt has spent the past two decades leading organizations through high growth and rapid change in challenging and competitive environments. Vogt was most recently president and CEO of ATX Networks, a leader in broadband access and media distribution. Prior to ATX, Vogt spent five years as president and CEO of Imagine Communications. Before joining Imagine Communications, Vogt was president and CEO of GENBAND (today known as Ribbon Communications), where he transformed the company from a startup to the industry’s global leader in voice over IP and real-time IP communications solutions. His professional career has also included leadership roles at Taqua (Tekelec), Lucent Technology (Nokia), Ascend Communications (Lucent), ADTRAN, Motorola and IBM.

 

Cisco

Cisco CFO to Retire

Cisco Systems Inc. said finance chief Kelly Kramer plans to leave the network-equipment company after more than five years in the position.

Ms. Kramer, who took on the role of chief financial officer in January 2015, will stay on until a successor has been found and will assist with the recruitment process, Chief Executive Chuck Robbins said during the company’s earnings call.

“Kelly has made the decision to retire from Cisco,” Mr. Robbins said, according to a transcript.

Ms. Kramer joined Cisco in 2012 as senior vice president of corporate finance and became senior vice president of business technology and operations finance before ascending to the CFO position. Before her time at Cisco, Ms. Kramer worked at General Electric Co. for about 20 years, including a 10-year stint at the company’s health care arm.

 

SignalWire

SignalWire Appoints Startup Channel Guru Ezra Hookano As Channel Chief

SignalWire has appointed Ezra Hookano vice president of global channels and business development.

A seasoned technology sales and business development executive, Hookano will head up the company’s expansion across a variety of channel partnerships and organizations. Hookano’s work has spanned seven startups, including Barracuda Networks, Drobo, Fusion-IO, and Exablox. During his tenures, he has aided in two IPOs and several acquisitions.

 

SigFox

Sigfox U.S.A. Appoints Hussain Suleman as Vice President of Sales

Sigfox U.S.A. announced that it has appointed Hussain Suleman as Vice President (VP) of Sales.

Suleman joined Sigfox U.S.A. in January 2020 as Director of Business Development. Before, Suleman served as the Country Director for southern and eastern Africa for Sigfox Group. Based out of Johannesburg, South Africa, Suleman was Sigfox’s first employee on the continent, launching the business in South Africa and eventually growing the brand along with the Sigfox Operator, SqwidNet, into the country’s leading IoT network.

Prior to his time at Sigfox, Suleman was principal specialist for machine-to-machine and vertical industries at Vodacom.

 

Ciena

Ciena Appoints New MEA and Regional Subsea Leader

Ciena has appointed Pete Hall as its new head of Middle East and Africa (MEA) region and subsea sales in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). 

Pete comes to Ciena with more than 20 years of sales, business development and international telecom experience. Previously, he was a key member of Orixcom’s management team, where he drove telecoms, network and cloud sales, marketing and strategy. 

 

Telstra

Expert 360 co-founder Bridget Loudon joins Telstra board

Expert360 founder Bridget Loudon has become the youngest independent director of an ASX top 200 company after joining Telstra’s board.

Ms Loudon began her professional career at Bain & Company in 2010, but she has always been an entrepreneur, having sold her first company at 21.

 

CenturyLink

CenturyLink promotes exec as federal lead

CenturyLink has promoted Zain Ahmed to the role of regional vice president for the company’s federal government business.

Ahmed will be responsible for civilian agencies, special programs and Defense Department sales. He previously led CenturyLink’s efforts focused on law enforcement, civil agencies and cybersecurity in the federal market. Earlier in his career, he founded an IT recycling business based in Dubai and worked for Verizon.

This appointment comes less than a month after CenturyLink added its hyperscale cloud business to the responsibilities of David Young, who will continue to lead the telecommunications company’s public sector business.

 

TPG Telecom

TPG Telecom names new IT leaders

After the merger of the Australian telecommunications company TPG Telecom with Vodafone Hutchison Australia in June this year, TPG Telecom has announced the appointment of its new leaders. Iñaki Berroeta, TPG Telecom CEO said the new executive team roles will be effective from August 17.

The Australian telco has appointed Rob James as its new Group Chief Digital and Information Officer. Mr James joined Vodafone in September 2019 as the company’s Chief Information Technology Officer and Director of Business Enablement. He is from Vodafone Qantas where he served as the Group Chief Technology Officer.

The company also said that Mandie de Ville, TPG’s present Chief Information Officer will be named Executive General Manager of IT and will report to James.

The Group IT and Digital and Executive General Manager of IT roles are a part of a bigger leadership shaker post the merger. The new full executive team that will be reporting to CEO can be viewed here. 

 

Vonage

Vonage Appoints Joy Corso as Chief Marketing Officer

Vonage announced it has appointed Joy Corso as Chief Marketing Officer. Corso will report to Rory Read, Vonage Chief Executive Officer.

Corso is an accomplished, results-oriented leader with more than 25 years of leadership experience in marketing and communications and was recently recognized as one of the ‘Top 50 Most Powerful Women In Tech.’ Corso joins Vonage from Virtustream, where she was Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to joining Virtustream, Corso held senior roles in top tier companies including Advanced Micro Devices, Raytheon and Iron Mountain.

 

Nepal Telecom

Nepal Telecom appoints a new CEO for its newly set up mobile money service company.

Board of Directors of Nepal Telecom has appointed Krishna Prasad Bhandari, the co-spokesperson of Nepal Telecom (NT), as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nepal Digital Payment Company during a meeting held on Tuesday.

Nepal Digital Payment Company is the new subsidiary company of Nepal Telecom, founded to provide mobile money service to its users.

Krishna Prasad Bhandari will continue as the interim CEO until a new CEO gets appointed through the systematic process. To speed up the work, they will recruit more employees along with the CEO.

 

Wireless Telecom Group

Wireless Telecom Group Announces Appointment of Chief Revenue Officer

Wireless Telecom Group announced the appointment of Alfred Rodriguez as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Mr. Rodriguez brings more than 20 years of experience leading sales and business development teams selling deep, design-in solutions and signal processing products. He joins the company from Xilinx.

In addition to 17 years at Xilinx, Mr. Rodriguez brings years of experience at ST Microelectronics and Cavium, Inc.

 

Intelsat

Intelsat Announces New Vice President of Global Government Affairs and Policy

Intelsat announced that Peter B. Davidson has joined the company as Vice President of Global Government Affairs and Policy.

Based in the company’s McLean, Va. office, he will report to Intelsat’s Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer Michelle Bryan.

Most recently, Davidson served as Deputy Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Assistant Professor of Law, at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. Before that, he served as General Counsel at the Department of Commerce, acting as the third most senior official and overseeing nearly 400 attorneys across all 13 of the Department’s bureaus.

Davidson also spent 14 years as the Senior Vice President of Federal and International Government Relations at Verizon Communications.

 

Bezeq

Gil Sharon appointed Chairman of the Board of Bezeq and its subsidiaries

The Israel Telecommunication Corp., Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ), announces that Bezeq’s Board of Directors has approved the appointment of Gil Sharon to the position of Chairman of Bezeq and Chairman of the subsidiaries: Pelephone, yes, Bezeq International, Walla and Bezeq Online.

Sharon has over 28 years’ experience in diverse senior positions in the telecommunications industry, among others, as Pelephone’s CEO for 10 years.

Most recently he served as chairman and CEO of Golan Telecom, which is currently merging with Cellcom Israel Ltd. 

 

Chunghwa Telecom

Chunghwa Telecom Announces Appointment of Vincent Y.S. Chen as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (“CHT”) announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Mr. Vincent Y.S. Chen as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Chunghwa Telecom, effective on September 1, 2020.

Mr. Vincent Y.S. Chen, Ph.D. in Accounting from State University of New York at Buffalo, former head of Accountancy Sector Research Centre of Singapore Accountancy Commission, is now a professor in the Department of Accounting at National Chengchi University. Chunghwa Telecom expects to leverage his experience and outstanding academic performance in the financial field, government and the academia in Taiwan and Singapore, to further improve the company’s financial and accounting performance and become a world-class enterprise.

 

Commscope

CommScope Announces Passing of Chief Commercial Officer Jeff White

CommScope issued the following statement: “It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden passing of our Chief Commercial Officer Jeff White. On behalf of our Board of Directors, our leadership team and our employees around the world, we extend our sympathies to Jeff’s family and friends.”

CommScope Chief Executive Officer Eddie Edwards said, “Although new to CommScope, Jeff made an immediate impact on our team, bringing his expertise and talents to our sales and marketing teams, positioning them for success during an extremely challenging period.”

Jeff White joined CommScope in May 2020. Before CommScope, Jeff served in leadership roles for Here Technologies, Syniverse, Extreme Networks, and Cisco.

 

IBM

IBM storage GM Walsh leaves Big Blue for startup ChaosSearch

IBM storage boss Ed Walsh is returning to the startup world, marking the second time in seven years he has left the mainframe and storage systems vendor. Walsh left his post as IBM storage general manager to become CEO of ChaosSearch, a startup that does log analysis for cloud-based data.

IBM hired Walsh as its storage general manager in 2016. It marked a second go-round for him at IBM. IBM acquired Storwize in 2010, a primary storage compression startup where Walsh served as CEO. He became a vice president of IBM Storwize until leaving in 2013 to become CEO at Catalogic Software.

Walsh said IBM is working through “a good list of candidates” for his replacement. “I’m sure they’re going to find a really good executive,” he said. He would not say who is on the list, but IBM storage CMO Eric Herzog is considered a candidate for the job, according to several industry insiders.

 

 

 

Have we missed anything? Email us at info@phoenixcareer.co.uk or comment directly under this post if there is a leadership announcement we should have included in our weekly roundups.

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