Wholesale chief becomes new CEO of Telecom Egypt

10 February 2019 | Alan Burkitt-Gray

Adel Hamed, Telecom Egypt’s chief international and wholesale officer, has been promoted to be CEO of the group, in succession to Ahmed El Beheiry.

The government, which owns 80% of Telecom Egypt, took the decision via a decree from the prime minister, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

The company said: “The decision comes in line with the Egyptian government’s plan to speed up the national digital transformation initiative, where Telecom Egypt has a strategic role in facilitating and accelerating such transformation for the country.”

Company chairman Magued Osman, Chairman of Telecom Egypt, said: “Hamed’s background and key role in Telecom Egypt’s domestic wholesale and international cable systems as the chief international and wholesale officer position him as the ideal candidate to capitalise on Telecom Egypt’s assets to implement the digital transformation strategy.”

Osman thanked El Beheiry – and other directors who were removed in the reorganisation – “for leading the company successfully in its transformation to a total telecom operator.”

The other two directors who have gone are Ashraf Mohamed Said Halim Mohamed Farid, replaced by Tarek Mohamed Abdollah Al Zaher, both major generals, and Amr Abdel Rasheed Mansour, replaced by Hossam Aballah Shaaban Mousa El-Gamal.

Hamed (pictured above) said: “This is an important time in the evolution of the telecom sector and I shall be relying on a great team at Telecom Egypt to make sure that we seize the opportunities and build on our strength.”

The company said that the new revenue streams from its transformation project “are expected to boost the company’s organic growth potential”.

Hamed has been chief international and wholesale officer since August 2017. He sealed Telecom Egypt’s $90 million acquisition in September 2018 of Orascom’s MENA Cable, linking Italy with the Middle East and India. That was a month after he negotiated with Bharti Airtel for an indefeasible right of use (IRU) on the MENA Cable as well as on TE North. Airtel also got large capacities on the SEA-ME-WE 5 and AAE1 as part of the same agreement.

An electronics engineer, Hamed joined Telecom Egypt in 1999 as a network engineer. He moved to the wholesale side of the business in 2008.