Willem Marais, SEACOM’s Chief Commercial Officer and formerly in senior positions with the Siemens Group of Companies has been appointed as the Group Managing Executive for Liquid Telecom Group and as the Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Telecom South Africa.
Marais brings over 20 years’ experience in the telecoms industry and will be responsible for all Liquid Telecom’s global wholesale data business across the service provider market and will also head Liquid Telecom’s business operations in South Africa.
In a statement, Liquid Telecom CEO Nic Rudnick said: “Willem has a great track record of developing long-term customer partnerships and leading negotiations with large scale wholesale telecommunication infrastructure transactions in Europe, Middle East and Africa, which make him perfect for this important position within our company.”
“I am pleased to join this dynamic and experienced team who are spearheading telecommunications development across the continent. Liquid Telecom is a leading provider of core telecommunication fibre infrastructure in Africa and provides a vital service in the enablement of Internet, data and transactional services that underpins economic growth in the African market.” Marais said.
Liquid Telecom is an independent data, voice and IP provider in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. It supplies fibre optic, satellite and international carrier services to Africa’s largest mobile network operators, ISPs, financial institutions and businesses of all sizes.
Liquid Telecom has built Africa’s largest single fibre network which runs from the north of Uganda to Cape Town, currently spanning over 18,000km across borders and covering Africa’s fastest-growing economies where no fixed network has existed before.
Liquid Telecom’s network provides connectivity onto the five main subsea cable systems landing in Africa; WACS, EASSY, SEACOM, SAT3 and TEAMs.
Working under various brands, the Liquid Telecom Group has operating entities in Botswana, DRC, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, UK, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The company has won multiple awards including Best African Wholesale Carrier for the last three consecutive years at the annual Global Carrier Awards.
