Johannesburg, 20 Aug 2003
Diego Massidda has been appointed chief executive officer of the South African subsidiary of Tiscali S.p.A. (headquartered in Cagliari, Italy), the European Internet company. He replaces previous managing director, Graeme Victor.
Italian-born Massidda (38) speaks four languages and is no stranger to SA. Between 1990 and 1995 he worked as a civil engineer in Johannesburg. He then spent a year in France doing an MBA, followed by six years in Italy as a senior manager at McKinsey, a top management consulting firm.
"We have a strong footprint as the largest independent ISP in Europe, with 7.6 million active users, 15.2 million monthly unique visitors to our portals and over 3 000 employees in 14 European countries and in SA. Our South African operation, with 250 employees, is in a good position to deliver new products and services," Massidda says.
"We have both local knowledge and direct access to the best technology from Europe. Our chief advantage in SA is that we are small and nimble - we will grow our existing consumer and mid-corporate markets but also address small to medium-size corporate clients, who collectively account for a significant chunk of our business growth."
He joins the company within Tiscali`s policy of consolidation and reinforcing of its subsidiaries in each market where the Tiscali group is represented.
Share