Orange Kenya Has a New CEO as the Clueless Mickael Ghossein is Recalled

Kenyan government is still fumbling with this Orange Kenya business. They have had the French as partners for years and the business unit is not promising to make them any money soon. And the French are conniving even demanding money all the time from the Kenyan government. Bitange Ndemo used to get whatever he got from the French so he protected them. Fred Matiang’i seems to be enjoying it also.

So it is being announced by the Board of Directors of Orange – Telkom Kenya – that Vincent Lobry is the company’s new Chief Executive Officer effective September 4, 2014. Vincent has come to replace the very clueless Mickael Ghossein who has been recalled to France and given the position of  Senior Vice President of Orange Business Services – Middle East.

Just not clear if the money he used to get the Kenyan government to pump into the struggling unit is his success. Maybe Ghossein is being edged out since I see that the new CEO Vincent Lobry  has also been at the level of Senior VP for a long time.

The Chair of the company’s Board, Eddy Njoroge, confirmed the Board’s decision to have Mr. Lobry lead Orange Kenya.

The incoming CEO is reported to have 35 years experience in the Telecommunications sector having risen through the ranks at the Orange Group to become Vice President – Commercial of Orange in Spain in 1998. He later became the Senior Vice President of Orange France in charge of Mass Market Marketing (Fixed, Broadband and Mobile) in 2003 and his most recent posting was as the Senior Executive Vice President of Orange Polska (Poland) in charge of Strategy, Marketing, Convergence and Value Creation since October 2009, a position that also saw him sit on the company’s board.

According to a statement from Orange, Mickael is leaving at a time when the struggling unit which is looking for a buyer posted 8% revenue growth for the overall business for the first half of this year, compared to the same period last year.  The France Telecom group believe that this growth is as a result of the amount of money the Kenyan government pumped into the business, something the group call “major investments.”