MTN group CFO Brett Goschen will leave the telecoms operator at the end of September "to pursue other interests".
"We thank Brett for his considerable contribution to the group over a period of 14 years and wish him well in his new endeavours," MTN said in a statement this morning.
He will also resign from his executive director role on MTN's board on 30 September.
Goschen joined MTN as CFO of MTN Nigeria in 2002, after which he became CFO of MTN Ghana in 2006. He returned to MTN Nigeria as CEO in 2011 and was then appointed as group CFO in July 2013.
He will be replaced by Gunter Engling, who is stepping in as acting group CFO until a permanent replacement is found. Engling is a chartered accountant who is currently CEO of MTN Rwanda. He has held many positions at MTN, including group executive of finance, reporting to the group CFO.
"Gunter has extensive knowledge and understanding of MTN Group's financial matters, workings and stewardship and will have the benefit of a close working relationship with Brett until his departure at the end of September," according to MTN.
Engling was responsible for the management and coordination of all statutory accounting and reported to all stakeholders, including the group audit committee and the board. He also held the positions of general finance manager for MTN Nigeria and CFO of MTN Ghana.
New VP
MTN also today announced its newest vice-president appointment. Stephen van Coller joins the group as VP of strategy and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), effective 1 October.
Van Coller will be the fourth VP of the group ? the other three having responsibility for the geographic operating regions of MTN. He joins former Vodacom chief officer for consumer business, Godfrey Motsa, who was recently appointed as VP of MTN South and East Africa, excluding SA. Last December, MTN appointed Karl Toriola as VP for West and Central Africa and Ismail Jaroudi as VP for Middle East and North Africa.
The firm says it expects to announce a deputy head of M&A shortly.
Van Coller is a qualified chartered accountant and MTN says he has over two decades of experience in financial services. This includes 10 years at Deutsche Bank as a MD of investment banking and as an executive committee member and foundation trustee for Deutsche Bank in South Africa.
For the last 10 years, he has been at the Barclays Africa Group, where he held the positions of head of primary markets at Absa Capital, and more recently CEO of the Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB), overseeing over R250 billion in assets spanned across 13 African countries. He was also part of the Barclays Europe Middle East and Africa CIB executive committee.
"MTN will continue its efforts to develop participation in the enterprise sector and adjacent sectors, such as financial services and media and entertainment. As the head of strategy and mergers and acquisitions, we are confident Stephen's experience will be instrumental in helping the group realise its ambitions and commitments," the telco says.
He also serves as a member of the World Economic Forum, represented on the Global Agenda Council (GAC) on values as well as serving on the GAC committee on the future of banking.
The management changes come after MTN last month announced the appointment of Rob Shuter as its new group president and CEO. Shuter will only begin in his role sometime next year, but no later than 1 July 2017, as he still has to fulfil his contractual obligations under his current role as CEO of Vodafone's European cluster.
At the time of his appointment, MTN said Goschen and the then yet to be announced VP of strategy and M&A would "assume clearly defined additional responsibilities under the guidance of the executive chairman", Phuthuma Nhleko.
The group says it is confident the process of reviewing its capacity, resources, governance and management structures will be substantially completed by year-end and "will leave the group well positioned to successfully face a highly competitive environment and take advantage of new opportunities".
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