Business Daily (Nairobi)
Okuttah Mark
25 June 2009
Telkom Kenya chief executive officer, Mr Dominique -Saint Jean, is retiring on Tuesday next week. He will be replaced by Mr Mickael Ghossein from Orange's Jordan operations.
The board of directors approved the retirement yesterday and passed a resolution on the appointment of Mr Ghossein.
Information and Communications permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo confirmed to Business Daily that the board had approved Mr Ghossein's appointment.
"Saint-Jean has retired and the board has confirmed Mr Ghossein who was previously heading Jordan's Orange operation for the post" he said.
Mr Saint-Jean, who has been at the helm for 18 months, took over from Mr Sammy Kirui after the privatisation of Telkom Kenya following France Telecom's acquisition of a 51 per cent stake in the company.
He took over the company when Telkom Kenya had only 280,000 subscribers to its landline network and has since managed to net another one million subscribers on the mobile network launched during his tenure.
In the 18 months that he has held the position, Mr Saint-Jean has overseen the restructuring of the company, which included reducing the number of staff, bringing in fresh talent to transform the loss-making company into profitability and aligning the company's strategy with the Orange global strategy.
In addition to the landline services that have long been at the core of Telkom Kenya's product offering, the telecommunications operator has diversified into Internet and video services and invested heavily in local and international telecommunications infrastructure.
The new chief executive comes in at a time when fierce competition in the sector is set to switch to provision of data services as a means to increase revenue as voice's share of the market shrinks.
Safaricom, the market leader, and Zain Kenya currently control 95 per cent of the voice market.
Another major challenge that awaits the new boss is that of finalising the retrenchment process of the employees.
The company is currently involved in a case against former employees which is awaiting determination in the industrial court.
Mr Saint Jean, a 60-year-old engineer with 36 years of telecommunications experience, joined Telkom Kenya with strong credentials in turning around loss-making firms that have been bought out by France Telecom.
His previous turnaround efforts saw him serve France Telecom in South America, Jordan and, more recently, at Mauritius Telecom where he was the immediate former deputy CEO.
Tough assignmentIn Mauritius, he successfully catapulted third-place Mauritius Telecom to the number one position among mobile phone players.
But cracking the Kenya telephony market has not been an easy assignment for Mr Saint Jean given the near stranglehold of the market by Safaricom.
Mr Ghossein brings in experience in managing an integrated telecommunications operations in Jordan.
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