Newly appointed Telecel Zimbabwe Managing Director John Swaim sees his new appointment as a temporary one that should lead to the appointment of a Zimbabwean to run the local company.
“I have come in as managing director in an interim position, while looking for a Zimbabwean to take over from me,” he said.
The United States-born managing director is an experienced Orascom Telecom executive and a member of both Telecel Zimbabwe and Telecel International boards of directors.
Orascom Telecom, which owns Telecel International, the present majority shareholder in Telecel Zimbabwe became recently part of the Vimpelcom group.
Mr. Swaim was appointed managing director in December last year after his predecessor, Aimable Mpore, was redeployed to oversee other operations within Orascom Telecom.
Other expatriates taking up positions with Telecel would also be doing so for defined periods during which they would be expected to bring local managers up to speed with the way in which the group does things, Mr Swaim said.
“Orascom Telecom adheres to a philosophy of management mobility which entails managers in Telecel Zimbabwe taking up positions in other operations within the group and vice versa as a way of sharing experience and skills,” he said.
Mr Swaim said that, as Vimpelcom, which is headquartered in Amsterdam, is listed on the New York stock exchange, there were additional internal controls and corporate governance rules applicable to companies listed on that stock exchange that would have to be implemented, hence the need for deployment of specialist skills from other operations to Zimbabwe.
He said he believed the integration of the Group would benefit Telecel Zimbabwe and should open up new opportunities for it, as it continues on its growth path in the coming year.
“We are extremely interested in the African market and we view Telecel Zimbabwe as our potential crown jewel on the continent,” he said.
“The accomplishment of this integration puts Telecel Zimbabwe within a first class worldwide recognised group, which will give us purchasing benefits and greater financial and technical support possibilities,” he said.
He said a key part of the company’s development over the next 12 months would be the continued expansion of its network to increase its geographic reach and further improve the quality of its voice and data services.
Mr Swaim, who has been involved in the local company’s operations since 2004 as a Telecel International financial consultant, is a United States citizen with right of residence in Switzerland.
He began his telecommunications career just over 28 years ago working for the American telecommunications giant AT&T. He worked for AT&T for 12 years, 5 of which were spent in Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Swain also spent some time in Kazakhstan in a general management consultancy role for AT&T/Lucent Technologies.
In 2002 he joined Orascom Telecom, providing consultancy services for international traffic. In October 2003 he helped launch Orascom Telecom Iraq as the company’s chief financial officer. The company had a network in February 2004, making it one of the fastest start-ups of a cellular operation in history.
His long association with Telecel International and Telecel Zimbabwe, as well as his 28 years experience in the telecommunications sector, put him in a good position to steer Telecel Zimbabwe on its growth path over the next year.
New release by Telecel
Share
Home