Deon Liebenberg joins Vodacom Business

·31 Jan 2013

Vodacom has confirmed that Deon Liebenberg will take up a new role at Vodacom Business, handling the global enterprise and international portfolios.

Deon Liebenberg will take up the role of Managing Executive: VGE and International Business at Vodacom Business effective 1 February 2013.

Liebenberg’s new role will involve managing the Vodafone Global Enterprise (VGE) portfolio which serves Vodafone’s largest multinational customers across all of Vodacom’s operations in sub-Saharan Africa.

“VGE is a unique organisation dedicated to simplifying how global customers manage their communications wherever they do business, by providing managed communications with a mobility core,” said Vuyani Jarana, chief officer for Vodacom Business.

VGE operates as a single integrated business worldwide and is responsible for the sales and service relationship with more than 1500 global customers, he said.

As part of the International Business portfolio, Liebenberg will be responsible for the growth and direction of Vodacom Business Africa (VBA).

According to Jarana, VBA provides customers with a wide portfolio of Enterprise ICT solutions across Africa. These range from pure access solutions to fully outsourced managed network services and managed hosted services.

Fit for Africa

Liebenberg is a highly-respected leader in the South African telecoms market, having built up a reputation for his ability to grow small companies into large market players – a skill which is likely to serve Vodacom well in its plans to expand into Africa.

At its H1 reporting in November 2012, Vodacom CEO, Shameel Joosub said that the operator was ready for a more aggressive assault on the continent.

According to the CEO, Vodacom would adopt a two pronged approach in Africa, namely, to continue to drive further penetration within the markets it is currently in, and seek new opportunities “more proactively” outside its current operations.

“We are looking at opportunities in Africa, we believe we’ve cracked the Africa model now,” Joosub said.