Former Airtel Boss appointed CEO Liquid Telecom Kenya; Ben Roberts becomes Chairman of Board

Liquid Telecom Kenya has announced the appointment of Adil Youssefi as its new Chief Executive.

According to press statement by Liquid Telecom he succeeds Ben Roberts, who will become board Chairman of Liquid Telecom Kenya and concentrate on his role as the Chief Technology Officer for Liquid Telecom Group, a position he has held since 2006.

The new CEO joins Liquid Telecom from Airtel Kenya where he has been Managing Director for three years. Prior to that, he worked for Millicom Group, a mobile operator with operations in several African countries, in various capacities across its subsidiaries. He started as a Senior Advisor to the Chief Officer Asia in Sri Lanka in 2008, then moved to Chad to take up the Chief Executive position and finally served as the Chief Executive of Millicom Ghana in 2012.

Youssefi has over 15 years’ experience in senior management across Africa, Asia and Europe, with expertise in developing markets, leadership and telecoms. He contributed to double digit growth in the companies he led in Kenya, Ghana and Chad.

“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,” said Nic Rudnick, CEO of the Liquid Telecom Group.

Liquid Telecom Group has grown rapidly in recent years, building an extensive fibre network spanning 11 countries across Eastern, Central and Southern Africa, that now stretches over 40,000km.

Following the acquisition of Kenya Data Networks in 2013, Liquid Telecom Kenya has also recorded tremendous growth. To date, the company has laid 5,000km of fibre network across Kenya, with 800km laid in 2016. It has connected 41 of the 47 counties to high speed internet, and rolled out successive rounds of new technology.

“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 Ben Roberts, Group CTO, Liquid Telecom.

Liquid Telecom Group has also appointed Willie Fryer as Chief Finance Officer for East Africa. This position was previously held by Raj Jandu who has moved to South Africa to take the role of Chief Finance Officer at Neotel.