Mobily on Sunday announced the appointment of two new top executives, naming Ahmad Farroukh as company CEO and Kais Ben Hamida as finance chief.
Farroukh stepped down from his previous role as chief executive of MTN’s South Africa business last week. At the time his former employer said his decision to leave was "unavoidable due to personal and family reasons."
Farroukh steps into a role left vacant by Khalid Omar Al Kaf, who was suspended by Mobily in November amidst an investigation into its accounting practices and formally removed from his position in February. Deputy CEO Serkan Okandan has been leading the Saudi Arabian company on an interim basis.
Mobily said Farroukh "brings over 30 years international business experience across [the] Middle East, Africa, North America and Europe to his new role."
His employment history includes the likes of KPMG and Deloitte, as well as Investcom, where he served as managing director of mobile operator Scancom in Ghana. After Investcom was taken over by MTN, Farroukh became CEO of MTN Nigeria. He held a number of other senior positions within MTN before becoming the South African mobile operato r’s CEO in 2014.
As chief executive of Mobily, Farroukh will work alongside Kais Ben Hamida, who was named as the telco’s new chief financial officer at the weekend.
Ben Hamida worked for the World Bank and Société Générale before entering the telecoms sector in 1997 with a move to Orange, where he spent more than 10 years in a variety of roles, including deputy head of M&A. After a two-year stint with a private equity fund, he joined Egyptian mobile operator Mobinil as CFO in 2011.
