Adil El Youssefi, who previously worked at Airtel Kenya before his exit two months ago, has been appointed as the new CEO of Liquid Telecom Kenya.
Adil Youssefi has over 15 years experience in senior management across Africa, Asia and Europe, with expertise in developing markets, leadership, and telecommunications, He contributed to double digit growth in the companies he led in Kenya, Ghana and Chad.
Nic Rudnick, CEO of the Liquid Telecom Group, said “Adil brings to Liquid Telecom Kenya his excellent track record of strong leadership, as well as his unique and incredible ability to understand the customers and the market in a way that sees him translate vision into winning strategy.”
Ben Roberts, the former CEO of Liquid Telecom will now chair the Liquid Telecom Kenya board and concentrate on his role as the Chief Technology Officer for Liquid Telecom Group, a position he has held since 2006.
“I’ll be returning full-time to the role of Chief Technical Officer with a considerably expanded network across Africa and a technology landscape that is advancing rapidly. My focus will be on running one Pan African network combined with innovation. Kenya is a perfect placed to be based due to its central African location and lively innovation scene. It is an honour to hand over the leadership of the Kenyan company to a CEO as experienced and accomplished as Adil,” said outgoing CEO Ben Roberts.
The expansion of Liquid Telecom including the group’s recent acquisition of Raha in Tanzania and Neotel in South Africa, has also prompted the group to appoint Willie Fryer as Chief Finance Officer, covering East Africa. This position was held previously by Mr Raj Jandu who has moved to South Africa to take the role of Chief Finance Officer at Neotel.
Adil Youssefi left Airtel “to pursue external opportunities post the completion of his contract period.” He takes over as CEO immediately and it will be interesting to see the direction he takes the company seeing that competition in that space in particular is increasing by the day.
