Australia’s Vocus Group has appointed telecoms industry veteran Kevin Russell as group managing director and CEO, effective on May 28. He, along with Mark Callander, CEO of Vocus New Zealand has joined the company’s board as an executive director.
Russell takes over from Michael Simmons, who held the interim group CEO role and now returns to his role as chief executive of enterprise and wholesale.
Simmons took on the role following Geoff Horth's departure announcement in February.
Russell has more than 20 years of experience in the telecoms industry in Australia and overseas. He was most recently group executive of retail for Telstra. He has also been the country chief officer and consumer CEO for Singtel Optus from 2012 to 2014.
Commenting on the appointment, Vocus chairman Bob Mansfield said Russell “has an excellent mix of skills and the demonstrated strategic ability to improve business performance.”
According to Vocus, Russell led Hutchison Three UK Ltd through a £1 billion ($1.33 billion) turnaround, from a £900 million loss in 2006 to £100 million profit in 2010.
“Corporate activity in earlier years has created a platform that makes Vocus competitive with the majors and opens up significant future growth opportunities. The board is very pleased that Kevin will be leading Vocus through its next stage,” Mansfield said.
NTT Com announces management changes
NTT Communications (NTT Com), the ICT services and international communications arm of the NTT Group, has announced changes to its management team.
Toshihide Emura has been promoted to senior vice president and head of West Japan sales division, effective June 21. Currently he is vice president and head of planning at the company’s second sales division.
Kenichiro Iida, VP and head of hosting for cloud services, will take over the roles of SVP and head of cloud services from June 22.
Kazuhiko Nakayama will take over the roles of SVP and head of finance from Masaya Fujimoto, who will transition to new roles as SVP and head of first sales division. The changes will take effect on June 26.
Kengo Nagase is appointed as SVP and head of managed services, while Takuhiko Obara is named SVP and head of legal affairs and Taichi Hiramatsu president & CEO of NTT MSC Sdn. Bhd, the company’s subsidiary in Malaysia. All these appointments will be effect on July 1.
In addition, the Japanese telco has named Atsushi Kasuu as president director of NTT Indonesia Nexcenter, effective June 1. He previously worked for NTT Worldwide Telecommunications Corporation.