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Rostam among long-serving faces behind Vodacom establishment

What you need to know:

  • The former Igunga law marker (CCM) has been in the network operator’s board since 1999 
  • A 12-member senior management team, which includes four women, makes things happen as the company gears up for DSE listing

Dar es Salaam. Tanzanian billionaire businessman Rostam Aziz (55) is the longest serving board member at Vadacom Tanzania, having been appointed to serve in his position in 1999.

The former MP for Igunga and one time CCM national treasurer is in his 17th year as a non-executive member of the team overseeing Vodacom interests in the country. Mr Aziz, who has varied business interests in and outside the country, quit politics in 2011.

He serves in the board alongside eight other people, including Mr Michael Joseph, 70, who for 10 years led Safaricom in Kenya and helped establish M-Mpesa platform that has since revolutionalised the mobile money transfer in other countries. 

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Mr Joseph joined the local board in 2013, three years after retiring as Safaricom CEO but was already sitting in the board of the Vadacom Group since 2009.

The only other long serving member in the team is Mr Henry Surtees (46), who was picked in 2011. Mr Surtees is shown in the Vadacom Tanzania IPO Prospectus as also serving in the position of the Head of Finance, Finance Controller and Company Secretary at Caspian Limited in which Mr Aziz is known to have significant investment.

Many of the other members of the board, including the Managing Director Ian Ferrao who is 34 years old, have served for less than three years. The board’s Chairman is Mr Vivek Mathur (52) who was appointed last year. Vivek is Vodacom Group’s Chief Operating Officer – International Business, responsible for Vodacom Group’s mobile communications operations outside South Africa.

The other members are Mr Andries Daniel Jan Delport (52) who is a long serving executive of the Vadacom Group, Mr Jean Jacques Marais (51) who doubles as the Finance Director, Mr Sitholizwe Mdlalose (36) and Ms Nomakhosi Skosana (46). One more position remains vacant. 

Vodacom Tanzania senior management team comprises of 12 executives aged between 34 and 51 years. Mr Ferrao who is the MD is the youngest. There are four women in this team, the youngest aged 37 in Ms Rosalynn Gloria Mworia, who is the Corporate Affairs Director and Head of Vodacom Foundation.

The other executives are Luis Fedriani (45), IT and Billing Director, Hisham Hendi (36), Consumer Business Unit Director,

Perece Kirigiti (45), Human Resources Director, Sitoyo Lopokoiyit (40) M-Commerce Director, Harriet Atweza Lwakatare (39), Customer Service Director, Alec Mulonga (42), Networks Director, Nina Firyandiana Pendaeli (48), Legal and Regulatory Affairs Director and  Ashutosh Tiwary (41), Enterprise Business Unit Director.

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