Safaricom Ethiopia has named a new team as part of its Executive Committee, just days after the company embarked on a nationwide staff recruitment drive.
The Executive Committee comprises of 11 staff members who will report to the telco’s MD in Ethiopia, Anwar Soussa.
Close to 40 job openings were announced by Safaricom Ethiopia as part of the staff recruitment drive.
The Executive Committee team has individuals drawn from various jurisdictions and regions where the Consortium members including Sumitomo Corporation (Japan), Safaricom (Kenya), Vodafone (UK), and Vodacom (Africa) have operations.
The following are the 11 newly appointed Committee members
1. Masahiro Miyashita (Chief Strategy Officer) – Miyashita, a Japanese national, brings on board vast experience in telecoms industry having worked for Sumitomo Corporation for over 30 years, where he is currently the GM of the Smart Communication Platform Business Division.
2. Pedro Rabacal (Chief Technology Officer) – Rabacal has been with Vodacom Group for 22 years, spending his last seven years as the and has been the CTO for Vodacom Mozambique.
3. Charles Wanjohi (Chief Consumer Business Officer) – Wanjohi carries a broad international perspective having worked in Kenya, South Africa, Bahrain, and experience working with 17 geographies across Sub Saharan Africa. He has built a telco career spanning more than 15 years across Celtel Kenya, Zain Kenya, Zain Group, Airtel Africa, Airtel Kenya and Safaricom, where he was the Director of Consumer Business.
4. Chris Lazarus (Chief Enterprise Business Officer) – Lazarus is currently the Managing Executive for KwaZulu Natal Region, Chris has been part of Vodacom South Africa since 2005, where he has held various roles within the Consumer and Enterprise Business Units. He brings onboard over two decades of experience in the Information and Communications Technology and Financial Services sectors.
5. Paul Kavavu (Chief Financial Services Officer) – Currently the Head of M-PESA new Business Ventures at Safaricom, Kavavu has 19 years of progressive experience in mobile money innovation, strategy formulation and execution, performance change management and negotiation across financial services, telecom, and banking industries.
6. Andarge Kabtimer (Chief Sales and Distribution Officer) – He has been appointed as the Chief Sales and Distribution Officer. Andarge brings on board over 20 years’ experience in various sectors in Ethiopia including FMCG, oil & gas and financial institutions having worked with the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, Shell, and Diageo in different senior roles.
7. Stanley Njoroge (Chief Finance Officer) – He has been appointed as the Chief Finance Officer. He joins the team from Guinness Nigeria where he was the Finance & Strategy Director and a member of the Board.
8. Mokaya Mokaya (Chief Human Resource Officer) – Mokaya has been appointed as the Chief Human Resource Officer. Currently the Head HR Business Partner for the Customer Organisation at Safaricom, he brings on board over 16 years progressive experience in Talent Management, Capability Development, Organizational Effectiveness, Change Management and HR Business Partnership.
9. Julie Arndt (Chief Legal and Risk Officer) – Julie has been appointed as the Chief Legal and Risk Officer. Currently, she heads the Legal Compliance Reviews and ISO Audit Assurance functions within the Vodacom Group Risk and Compliance team.
10. Matthew Harrison-Harvey (Chief Regulatory and External Affairs Officer) – Matthew a UK national, has held several senior legal, regulatory, and external affairs roles within the Vodafone Group over the last 20 years. These include Legal, Regulatory, and External Affairs Director at Vodafone Qatar between 2008 and 2012.
11. Koichi Kawase (Director, Project Management Office) – Kawase has been appointed as the Director, Project Management Office. Kawase has spent close to 30 years in Sumitomo Corporation taking on increasingly larger and varied management roles, from Chief Strategy Officer to Chief Executive Officer and Chief Commercial Officer in the largest telecommunication operators in Mongolia and Myanmar, both affiliated companies of Sumitomo.
The Global Partnership for Ethiopia plans to launch commercial operations in the first half of 2022.