Following the retirement of Ms. Irene Charnley and Mr. Mohammad Wajih Sharbatly from the Group’s Board of Directors, Smile Telecoms Holdings Limited has announced significant changes in the leadership of the Group’s board and management.
According to the Pan-African telecommunications group with operations in Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this new appointment will reinforce the Group in the coming era of Telecoms transformation.
Smile had announced the retirement of Ms. Irene Charnley, Founder of Smile and Mr. Mohammed Wajih Sharbatly, Co-Founder of Smile from the Group’s Board and all boards of the operating companies, effective January 1st, 2021.
“While we understand the desire of our Founders to retire after a challenging journey, we have been preparing over the past months for the future. We want to ensure that we bring the best competencies on board to enable the Group to face the various challenges and transformations that the Telecoms sector faces and take advantage of the opportunities ahead. Africa is the fastest-growing continent globally, and data is the new future in the world we live in,” said Mr. Ibrahim H. Sharbatly, Chairman of the Group.
Also commenting on the changes, Ahmad Farroukh, Group CEO, added, “I am looking forward to working with the new Board Members and counting on their diverse experience to prepare for the company’s future in the challenging times the industry is going through.”
The new board members as announced by Smile Telecom Holdings are:
Mr. Osman Sultan as Vice Chairman of the Group. Mr. Sultan, the founding CEO of EITC (du) in the UAE, was at its helm from 2006 until the end of 2019. Before that, he was the founding CEO of Mobinil in Egypt (now Orange Egypt) from 1998 until the end of 2005. Mr. Sultan sits on several ICT Companies and Academic Boards. He has been actively involved with Smile as the Chairman of the Restructuring and Transformation Committee of the Group since July 2020.
Mr. Albert Momdjian as Board Member of the Group and Chairman of the Group’s Audit Committee. Mr. Momdjian is a former corporate and investment banker with 27 years of corporate Investment banking and restructuring experience primarily in Media and Telecoms across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, having been involved in over USD 100 bn worth of M&A, capital markets and restructuring transactions.
Mrs. Caroline Chang as a member of the Group’s Audit Committee. Mrs. Chang is an experienced board member and former EMEA General Counsel of Farallon, the leading US hedge fund that has been active in Africa and Emerging Markets.