Prenesh Padayachee, former chief sales and marketing officer at Telkom Openserve, has been appointed as Seacom’s group chief digital officer (CDO), effective from 4 January 2021.
Padayachee takes over from CTO Claes Segelberg who resigned after nine years at the submarine cable operator.
In a statement, Seacom says in addition to the CTO responsibilities, Padayachee will also be absorbing the chief information officer role, and thus the new title of group CDO.
In his new position, he will be tasked with developing the company's strategy for using technological resources, evaluating and implementing new information technology systems and infrastructure, and guiding the company in responding to industry trends, among other duties.
Padayachee was with Telkom Openserve from 2015 t0 2017. He has previously worked as CTO at Internet service provider, Internet Solutions and prior to that he was an advisory technical specialist at tech giant IBM. Most recently he worked as an independent consultant.
Incoming group CEO, Oliver Fortuin expressed his confidence in him: “We know that Prenesh will continue to lead the team professionally and uphold the high standards our customers have come to expect from Seacom. This transition marks the start of exciting changes and new beginnings for our group.”
Seacom launched in July 2009 as a “wholesale-only” subsea cable operator that sold linear transmission capacity on its Seacom Subsea Cable System for the first few years of its existence.
In the same year, it launched Africa’s first broadband submarine cable system along the continent’s eastern and southern coasts.
In 2015, Seacom entered the direct to corporate market in SA, followed by similar launches in Kenya in 2016 and Uganda in 2019.
While the company continues to be a significant player in the IPT and data transmission markets in the service provider segment in Africa, serving most hyperscalers, cloud players, regional ISPs and global telcos, it says its key growth focus is to expand its value proposition into a fully-fledged fibre-led telecoms provider for enterprise and corporate segments.
Segelberg points out that now was the right time for him to hand over his CTO responsibilities.
“Seacom is heading into a new future of investment and growth, focusing on the rapidly expanding corporate segments in our key markets. This requires fresh ideas and new skills that will take the company from its current strengths into its future expansion and development,” he explains.
Byron Clatterbuck, the outgoing group CEO, took the opportunity to thank Segelberg for his impactful contribution through the years.
“Claes has been a true asset to the Seacom team, playing a pivotal role in shaping our organisation into the industry leader it is today. We wish him the very best with his future endeavours, and are grateful that he will be staying with us until the end of March 2021, to ensure a seamless handover into the capable hands of Prenesh.”
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