MTN is 20 and the telecoms company is celebrating it big. In the story below, City People unveils the Big guys and ladies who run MTN. MTN’s leadership is made up of EXCOM (Executive Committee). And the membership are: Karl Olutokun Toriola – CEO; Mazen Mroue – COO (Lebanese); Tobechukwu Okigbo – Chief Corporate Services Officer; Lynda Saint Nwafor – Chief Enterprise Business Officer; Esther Akinnukawe – Chief Human Resources Officer; Adekunle Adebiyi – Chief Sales & Distribution Officer; Modupe Kadri – Chief Financial Officer; Cyril Ilok – Chief Risk & Compliance Officer; Adia Sowho – incoming Chief Marketing Officer; Shoyinka Shodunke – Chief Information Officer; Srinivas Rao – Chief Digital Officer; (Indian); Ugonwa Nwoye – Chief Customer Relations Officer; Mohammed Rufai – Chief Technical Officer; Olubayo Adekanmbi – Chief Transformation Officer; Usoro Usoro – GM, Y’ello Digital Financial Services; Kolawole Oyeyemi – GM, Customer Experience; Ibe Etea – GM, Internal Audit and Fraud Management; Uto Ukpanah – Company Secretary.
There are more topshots, like Valentine Izuchukwu (GM, Business Development), Babalola Oyeleye (GM, Transformation & Information), Omasan Ogisi (GM, Corporate Affairs), Innocent Entonu (GM, Regional Operations), Stephen Akinola (GM, Finance Business), Ajibola Opeoluwa-Calebs (GM, HR Operations), Funso Aina (Snr. Manager, External Relations), Funso Finnih (SM. Digital Products), Debo Agun (SM, Mass Market Segment), Emamoke Ogoro (SM, Master Brand), Tajudeen Omokhide (SM, Distribution), Johnson Oyewo (SM, Regulatory Affairs), Anas Galadima (SM, Gort Relations), Josephine Sarouk (GM, Regional Operations), Henry Okoede (SM, Innovation), Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka (GM, Enterprise Marketing), Odunayo Sanya, (Executive Secretary MTN Foundation), Chineze Gbenga Oluwatoye (SM, Corp. Communications), Ikenna Ikeme (GM, Regulatory Affairs) and Tunde Success-Osideko (SM, Org. Devt. & Performance).
Below are their profiles.
KARL TORIOLA CEO MTN NIGERIA
Karl holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and a Master of Science degree in Communication Systems from the University of Wales, Swansea, UK. He has also completed several programmes at INSEAD, Singapore; Wharton Business School, USA; London Business School, UK; Harvard Business School, USA; and Institute of Management Development (IMD), Switzerland.
He first joined MTN Nigeria as the Chief Technical Office in 2006 before holding various positions across the MTN Group. He brings over 24 years’ experience in distinctive leadership and business expertise from MTN Group, WECA region; MTN Cameroon; and prior to MTN, Vmobile Nigeria; Ericsson Nigeria & AG Switzerland. He is also a Non-Executive Board Member of MTN Nigeria.
Karl re-joined MTN Nigeria from MTN Group where he served as Vice President, West and Central Africa (WECA) with direct operational and profit & loss (P&L) responsibility for seven Opcos – Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Benin, Congo Brazzaville, Guinea, Liberia, and Bissau.
He became Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria in 2021.
MAZEN MROUE THE COO, MTN NIGERIA
He holds a Master’s Degree in Engineering, Intellectual Systems and Networks, and is certified in leadership development and finance from Harvard Business School and INSEAD respectively.
Mazen’s expertise spans Telecoms, Information Technology, Digital and Mobile Financial Services garnered during his time across the MTN ecosystem as Chief Information Officer & Head of Enterprise Business, MTN Ghana, CEO of MTN Liberia and CEO of MTN Uganda.
He joined MTN Nigeria in 2018 and provides strategic direction to the business’ commercial and technical functions including the Enterprise Business Unit, Customer Relations, Information Services, Marketing & Strategy, Mobile Financial Systems, Network Group and Sales & Distribution Divisions.
TOBECHUKWU OKIGBO CHIEF CORPORATE RELATIONS Officer, MTN NIGERIA
He holds an LLB from the University of Maiduguri, Borno State Nigeria, and an MBA from the University of Liverpool, UK. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1990.
Tobe is an accredited certified resolution professional of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR UK). He is a seasoned expert in Corporate Relations, Stakeholder Management, Strategy Formulation and Execution honed from his time at Eddie Ntephe and Co., the Negotiation and Conflict Management Group (NCMG) and Airtel Nigeria, amongst others. Prior to joining MTN in 2017, he was the Chief Corporate Services Officer of Smile Communications.
Modupe Kadri is the Chief Financial Officer of MTN Nigeria.
He joined MTN Nigeria in 2007 as the General Manager, Financial Operations and held various positions within the Finance division. In August 2014, he joined Scancom Plc as the chief financial officer and was appointed Executive director in April 2016, a position he held until 29 February 2020.
Before joining MTN, he worked at Lafarge Africa PLC where he held various positions in the West African Portland Cement (WAPCO) PLC subsidiary including financial controller and business development manager. He trained and qualified as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where he spent 11 years. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in economics and a Master’s of Science in management, both from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and is a Fellow of both the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). He was part of MTN’s Global Advancement Programme (GAP) in 2012 and has attended various leadership programs at the Columbia Business School, INSEAD and IMD Business School where he is an alumnus of all three.
He became the Chief Financial Officer/Executive Director for MTN Nigeria Communications PLC in 2020.
LYNDA SAINT-NWAFOR CHIEF ENTERPRISE BUSINESS OFFICER (CEBO) MTN NIGERIA
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), where she received the Dean’s prize for the best results in the Faculty. She has also acquired executive education from the Columbia Business School, New York, USA.
Adept in Network Planning, Project Management, Organisational and Business Transformation, as well as People Management, Lynda joined MTN Nigeria in 2001 and rose through the ranks, holding various positions such as Core Network Planning Manager (2003), Senior Manager, Systems Planning (2004), General Manager, Network Planning (2005) and Chief Technical Officer (2011).
Lynda has also served in key advisory positions such as member, Presidential Committee instituted by Former Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan.
She became the Chief Enterprise Business Officer of MTN Nigeria in 2016.
MOHAMMED RUFAI CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER, MTN NIGERIA
He holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi State. He is an alumnus of Cranfield University (General Management Program), Duke CE (Global Advance Program) and Lagos Business School (Senior Management Program).
With years of experience spanning Telecoms, Information and Communication Technology, Mohammed built expertise, rising through the ranks in positions at MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana.
Prior to joining MTN Nigeria in 2019, he was responsible for Technology in SEAGHA (South-East Africa and Ghana), MTN Group.
ADEKUNLE ADEBIYI, CHIEF SALES AND DISTRIBUTION OFFICER MTN NIGERIA
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Benin, Edo state.
With an award-winning career spanning 20 years, Adekunle has amassed a wealth of experience and expertise in Sales Operations in the Pharmaceutical and Telecommunications industries, drawing from positions held at Pfizer Products Plc.; Livestock Feeds Plc.; Econet Wireless Nigeria Limited; Vee Networks Ltd.; Celtel (now Airtel) Nigeria Limited and Visafone Communications Limited.
He joined MTN Nigeria in 2012 as General Manager, Sales and held the positions of General Manager, Regional Operations – North (2014) and General Manager, Enterprise Sales (2016) before assuming an acting capacity in the above role in 2016 becoming Sales and Distribution Executive in 2018.
A sales trainer and budding public speaker, he also engages in coaching and training of Salesmen & Leadership development in Nigeria.
ESTHER AKINNUKAWE CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCE OFFICER, MTN NIGERIA
She holds a Bachelors’ degree in International Relations from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and an MBA from the IESE Business School, Universidad de Navarra Spain. She is also a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM), as well as the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
Esther brings her over 2 decades of experience in consulting, teaching and HR management drawn from positions held at Andersen Consulting, Lagos (now Accenture); Societe Generale Bank, Trust Bank for Africa and FCMB Bank. Prior to joining MTN, Esther was on the Faculty of Lagos Business School of the Pan African (now Pan Atlantic) University.
She joined MTN Nigeria in 2012 as MTN in February 2012 as General Manager, Business Partnering and Services. She became Human Resource Executive in 2018.
UGONWA OWOYE CHIEF CUSTOMER RELATIONS OFFICER, MTN NIGERIA
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School, Boston, USA.
Ugonwa years of experience in Strategy and Management Consulting, Oil & Gas and the Telecommunications industries gleaned from work at Bain & Company Inc. South Africa, Mercer Management Consulting, San Francisco and Schlumberger in their Gabon, Nigeria and Indonesia offices.
She joined the Customer Relations Team of MTN Nigeria in 2003, as a CRM (Loyalty & Affinity) Product & Services Manager and was appointed General Manager, Product & Services in 2008 before assuming her current role in 2014.
CYRIL ILOK CHIEF RISK AND COMPLIANCE OFFICER MTN NIGERIA
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Calabar, Cross River State and an MBA from the University of Benin, Edo State. He also holds a slew of international certifications in compliance, ethics, and risk management, and is a Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA) and the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN).
Cyril brings years of experience in Banking and Telecommunications having worked with large multinationals including All States Trust Bank (now Ecobank) and Standard Trust Bank (now UBA).
He joined MTN in 2002 and rose through the ranks holding various positions before he was appointed General Manager, Business Risk Management. In June 2018, following the reorganisation, he became the General Manager, Internal Audit and Fraud Management, and took up the mantle of Acting Executive for the newly created Risk & Compliance division before taking up his present role in 2019.
SRINIVAS RAOS CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER MTN NIGERIA
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the Delhi University, India and is pursuing a Masters in Accounting from Oxford Brookes United Kingdom. He holds several professional certifications from Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft, CheckPoint, PMI, and others.
Srinivas has two decades of management experience in IT and telecoms with significant knowledge and expertise from working in MTN operations in Ghana and Iran.
Prior to joining MTN Nigeria in 2019, he was Chief Information Officer MTN Iran as well as chaired the Digital Transformation, Information Security & Innovation teams.
OLUBAYO ADEKANMBI CHIEF TRANSFORMATION OFFICER, MTN NIGERIA
He holds an MBA from the University of Reading; a certificate in Business Finance from Columbia Business School; a certificate in Telecoms Strategy & Marketing from INSEAD Business School; and a PhD from City University Cass Business School in London, among others.
Bayo is a certified Data Scientist, with almost two decades of experience in Strategy, Marketing and Analytics across Nigeria and South Africa.
Before joining MTN he worked as Strategy and Business Director at DDB Nigeria then held several roles within the MTN Group and MTN Nigeria before becoming MTN Nigeria’s Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer in 2015 and then taking up his present role in 2016.
He is also the founder of Data Science Nigeria (DSN) – a social initiative that promotes business transformation, through the application of data science in business, policy, investment, and community planning.
UTO UKPANAH COMPANY SECRETARY, MTN NIGERIA
She holds an LLB from the University of Cross River State (now University of Uyo) and is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, International Bar Association as well as the Ethics & Compliance Officers Association, USA. She is also a Fellow (FCIS) and Member of the Council of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria.
Uto has been actively involved in the development of corporate governance and ethics-related codes across sectors in Nigeria and globally.
She joined MTN Nigeria in 2005 as Company Secretary. She also administers the secretariat of MTN Foundation Limited by Guarantee and exercises secretarial oversight over other entities within the MTN structure.
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