Shahab Mehski Officially Assumes the Position of CEO at KDN

Allied Technologies Limited (Altech)  has now formally announced the appointment of Shahab Meshki as Chief Executive Officer of Altech Kenya Data Networks (KDN), effective today,  1 November 2011.

Altech will be looking at CISCO’s former GM for East Africa operations to navigate the major data carrier out of the murky waters it has found itself into recently. KDN operates the largest data and Internet backbone in East Africa, providing a comprehensive suite of services over its 6,000km fibre optic network, including Internet Protocol services, broadband transport, infrastructure and collocation services.

Mehski has more than 20 years of working experience in the Information Technology and Telecommunications sector, having began his career with the Siemens AG (Germany) Automation Division in charge of Software & Hardware Development and later Marketing and Sales of network analyzers.

In 1995 Mehski moved to Cisco where he held various Channel and Sales Management positions responsible for Global Accounts and Business Development. In 2002 he moved with his family to Kenya to establish Cisco’s presence in East Africa.

As General Manager for Cisco in East Africa until October 2011, he was responsible for running the sales operation in Kenya focusing on Key Accounts in the Corporate, Government and Service Provider markets of the East African region. During his rein at CISCO, Mehski drove the company to achieve a growth of approximately 1000% for Cisco’s business and established East Africa as one of Cisco’s fastest growing regions on the continent.

Meshki will be reporting directly to Tim Ellis, Altech Group Executive for Converged Services and will be responsible for creating the vision, business architecture and go-to-market strategy for KDN.

There have been recent murmurs from KDN with staff accusing the South African managers of being insensitive to their needs and treating the employees most of of who have been very loyal to the company. Altech has been replacing the young Kenyan managers with South Africans going as far as having an Indian as head of Commercial and Marketing services which is against Kenya’s labour laws.

Mehski was born in Iran and raised in Germany, he holds a Master’s degree in Electronic Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany and a Postgraduate degree from the University of Cambridge, UK in Public & Private Partnerships.  Shahab speaks German, English and Farsi and lives in Nairobi, Kenya with his wife and two daughters.