Mobile Broadband: Alan Knott-Craig to take over as Cell C CEO

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 30 January 2012

Alan Knott-Craig (Snr), former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vodacom, will step in as Cell C’s new CEO later this year in April. This comes after Lars Reichelt stepped down as Cell C’s CEO in July last year and the Board of Directors appointed Cell C’s Chairman, Simon Duffy, as acting CEO of Cell C.

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa) welcomes the return of Alan Knott-Craig (Snr) to the telecoms world, especially given the fact that he is going to take over the reins at Cell C on April Fools' Day this year to be exact. One cannot help to wonder how retirement has treated him since he left Vodacom in 2008 or is Cell C dangling a larger than life carrot in front of him? Well, one thing is for sure, Knott-Craig seems to be excited about the prospect of being at the helm of Cell C: “After a break from the telecommunications industry, I am looking forward to being at the helm of Cell C. The mobile telecommunications sector is a highly innovative and disruptive industry, and I am excited about the challenge of making Cell C a more effective competitor to the dominant players. The company has benefited from considerable investment in the past few years, particularly in its network but also in many other areas of the business, and I am confident that I will be able to build on that investment to accelerate the company’s growth” (Cell C appoints Alan Knott-Craig as CEO, MyBroadband, Staff Writer, 19 January 2012). Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how long Knott-Craig is going to last at Cell C, given the fact that Cell C seems to change CEOs faster than a baby’s nappies gets changed. Hopefully he will last longer than his predecessors and take Cell C to new heights.

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa) wishes Knott-Craig (Snr) all the best in his new endeavor and is looking forward to see him performing his magic at Cell C. Hopefully we will see a large drop in the cost of mobile broadband, something which is desperately needed in South Africa.