Larry Annetts will shortly join MTN SA as its chief marketing officer (CMO), replacing Brian Gouldie, who has been appointed as the new CEO of one of the group's multinational operations, although it has yet to reveal which one.
Annetts joins MTN SA from Nigeria, MTN's biggest operation by subscribers with more than 57 million customers, where he is CMO. He started his career with in 1995 as product manager at MTN SA, this was followed by serving in the start-up team that was responsible for setting up Uganda and Rwanda consecutively.
He has also served as GM of products and services development for MTN Nigeria and in this role designed, implemented and launched the first Mobile Virtual Private Network (VPN) platform in Africa. He also led the team that customised, implemented and launched GPRS and MMS technology for the first time in Nigeria.
After that Nigerian stint, Annetts moved to Iran as chief marketing and strategy officer. During that time, he launched the entire suite of products and services for the growing operation, including 30 first-to-be-launched products that spearheaded MTN's regional growth.
During his tenure at MTN Irancell, Annetts contributed immensely to growing MTN Irancell's subscriber base, growing MTN customers to over 36.2 million in about five years and setting the MTN Group record for the highest number of activations per day, says MTN.
"Annetts' term in Nigeria was characterised by unprecedented success and a string of glowing accolades for the operation. He inspired and led the most talked about advertising campaign in Nigeria (Saka's I don port) which earned a global positive sentiment rating of 86%, over 8 million unique mentions and a total earned media value of 4 billion naira in 23 days."
Under Annetts' leadership, MTN Callertunez hit the 30 million subscriber mark, with a library of more than 12 000 Callertunez from various artists, making MTN the largest distributor of music and related content in Nigeria. He also initiated the first of its kind branded music CD containing music of all MTN ambassadors, the operator adds.
Zunaid Bulbulia, MTN SA CEO notes: "We are delighted to have an employee of the calibre like Annetts in our team; we remain confident that the wealth of experience that he brings will bolster our efforts and gain the hearts and minds of our customers."
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