• MTN has appointed David Behr to lead its ICT Centre of Excellence, a division that will see the brainstorming of new solutions and best practices for the company’s enterprise business.
• Behr has over 20 years of experience in the telecom space and is the current CEO of Liquid C2.
• MTN could be looking to make a bigger push into South Africa’s enterprise tech space with this appointment, and the appointment of Tumi Chamayou a month prior.

A new appointment from MTN Group and MTN South Africa will see the position of Chief Executive (CEO) for the telecom’s ICT Centre of Excellent (CoE) become more stable as David Behr (pictured above) is set to replace interim chief Vaughan Naidoo in the role.

According to an announcement from MTN, the appointment will be effective 1st November 2023, where Behr will lead MTN’s ICT CoE, a unit of the company that develops and promotes “best practices, processes and standards” for the business. CoEs also see the development of new solutions to head to the market.

As MTN Group chief operating officer Jens Schulte-Bockum explains, CoEs are essentially think tanks, and MTN’s CoE will help the group with fast-tracking of products and development of new solutions and practices geared towards its enterprise business.

“Behr’s experience in developing CoEs will help MTN achieve the enterprise scale it requires across its nineteen operating markets,” the telecom explains, adding “Behr, a highly acclaimed industry veteran with over two decades of experience, has extensive expertise in the enterprise arena, including enterprise cloud, cyber security, IOT solutions and platform development, amongst others.”

Behr is currently chief executive of Liquid C2, a cloud computing arm of pan-African Liquid Intelligent Technologies, and was the founder of one of Zimbabwe’s first ISPs in 1995, whereafter he joined Liquid in 2012. In terms of academic experience, Behr has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Bristol in the UK.

“David Behr’s exceptional career and deep industry knowledge make him the ideal choice to lead our ICT Centre of Excellence. He will play a pivotal role in advancing our strategic initiatives, strengthening our partnerships, and driving innovation that enhances our customers’ digital experiences,” concludes Charles Molapisi, CEO of MTN South Africa.  

In September MTN appointed a new chief enterprise business officer for South Africa with Tumi Chamayou taking up the reins as of October. Chamayou was previously a group executive for MTN’s enterprise business unit.

It’s possible that the telecom could be making a bigger play for enterprise customers specifically in South Africa with the appointment of Behr, and Chamayou before him.

[Image – Provided]