Etisalat poach MTN SA CEO to run Mobily

Etisalat Group today announced the appointment of Ahmad Farroukh as the new CEO of Mobily.

Farroukh brings over thirty years international business experience across Middle East, Africa, North America, and Europe to his new role at Mobily. Most recently he was CEO of MTN South Africa and Nigeria. Prior to that appointment he was MTN Group COO responsible for covering its operations.

Farroukh began his career in 1983 as the finance manager for Mediterranean Investor Group. By the early 1990s he focused on audit roles, first as an audit supervisor for KPMG, New York and then for Deloitte Touché, Saudi Arabia, before joining Investcom Holding Group as its group finance controller in 1996.

He then moved to Africa joining Scancom (Investcom Holding Group) in Ghana as MD and regional manager for its West Africa operations. Following Investcom’s acquisition by MTN Group, he was appointed as CEO MTN Nigeria, which, under his leadership, grew to 40 million subscribers with EBIDTA margins of 62 per cent.  This success propelled him to the role of VP West and Central Africa and later Group COO at MTN.  In 2014 he was appointed as CEO of MTN South Africa. 

Mobily has been under investigation by Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority since November, after the operator restated figures for 2013 and the first nine months of 2014, which it blamed on an accounting error. The issue led to the suspension, and then sacking of founding CEO Khalid Al-Kaf.