Operating Countries CEOs

Former Director of Business for Orange in Botswana and current CEO for Liquid Intelligent Technologies Botswana, Odirile has also worked in Relationship Management and Corporate Accounts Management. He has over 20 years experience at both operational and managerial level. Odirile holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Botswana. Further, Odirile completed an Executive Development Programme in Financial Management Fundamentals with the University of Stellenbosch and also an Executive Development Programme with the University of Cape Town.

Former Vice President Business Development Africa and Managing Director of Nokia RDC (formerly Alcatel-Lucent), Eric Waku was also Vice President Sales EMEA at Smartmatic, then Senior Advisor at Deloitte in charge of French-speaking Africa, before joining the manager of telecom towers Helios Towers RDC, of which he was the managing director. A globetrotter and passionate about the continent's sustainable development in telecommunications, digital and renewable energies, the new manager - whose motto is "doing his part" - holds an MBA from ESCP Business School and the McCombs School of Business in Austin (USA).

Effective 8 September 2022, Adil El Youssefi was appointed Chief Executive Officer, Liquid Networks: Rest of Africa based in Kenya. Adil joined Liquid Intelligent Technologies in April 2017 as CEO for Kenya. In October 2018, he became the Regional CEO of East Africa.

He was directly responsible for the leadership, strategic and operational management of Liquid Intelligent Technologies’ wholesale, enterprise and retail businesses throughout Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, South Sudan and Ethiopia.

Prior to joining Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Adil served as Managing Director of Airtel Kenya for three years. He has over 20 years of experience in senior management across Africa, Asia and Europe, with expertise in developing markets, leadership, strategy, telecommunications, sales & marketing, and digital TV.

Before joining Airtel, Adil had risen through the management ranks of global telecoms and media company Millicom. Initially as a Senior Advisor to the Chief Officer Asia in Sri Lanka, before moving to Chad to take up the Chief Executive position and then becoming Chief Executive of Millicom Ghana. Adil completed his MBA from INSEAD and has a Masters in Electronics/Telecommunications from ENSEIRB-MATMECA.

Wole Abu is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Liquid Intelligent Technologies Nigeria (LITN) and Africa Data Centre (ADC) in Nigeria. Prior to his appointment at Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Abu served as the Chief Executive Officer of Pan African Towers, a telecom infrastructure company he built to being one of the leading Towercos in Nigeria. Abu also served as Vice President of Sales at Airtel Nigeria, where he also held several senior management roles in the Human Resources, Engineering, Operations, Finance, Legal, and Marketing departments respectively.

This polyfocal blend of functional skills, makes Abu a very experienced leader and force in the telecoms sector as he is poised to bridge the connectivity gap in Africa in an environmentally sustainable fashion. This is demonstrated as he was recently named one of the top 20 Towercos Chief Executives in the World by TowerXchange. Abu, in his storied career also won the Nigeria Tech Innovation and Telecom Award (NTITA) by the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) for his outstanding contributions to the growth and development of the telecom industry. Abu was also elected by the same association to serve as its Publicity Secretary. He has managed across start-ups and mature companies, leading these businesses into periods of massive and rapid growth through new business service rollouts, while driving positive change in the respective companies.

While at Pan African Towers, Mr. Abu led the company to win four significant awards in its two years of business operations including the Telecoms Infrastructure Company of the Year Award at the 2020 Nigeria Business Leadership Awards (NBLA) organised by BusinessDay.

Abu is creative, innovative, visionary and a strategic planner who has an excellent sense of business ethics and corporate governance.

With his continued leadership style, rare enthusiasm and heightened drive to revolutionise the telecom industry in Nigeria, Mr. Abu is dedicated to making a significant impact on the society.

Highlights and Qualifications

• Abu is a member of the Project Management Institute, and volunteers regularly for causes that protect families and empowers communities.
• He holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering with Honours from the University of Benin and an MBA from the Lagos Business School.
• In 2012, Abu attended the Indian Institute of Business Management, Ahmedabad where he acquired a certification in Business Administration and Management.
• Abu has attended several leadership courses in top educational institutions and consistently gives talks and makes presentations in top conferences and seminars globally.

Alexis is CEO at Liquid Intelligent Technologies Rwanda. Joining us in 2016, he has since helped establish the company as the country’s leading Internet Service Provider (ISP). Alexis has held a number of senior management positions at telecoms companies.

Prior to joining Liquid Intelligent Technologies Rwanda, he was the Country Operations Manager at Ericsson Rwanda and the Network Operations Manager at Airtel Rwanda, where he was part of the team which launched Airtel Rwanda operations, as a greenfield network.

Deon Geyser was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa in 2021 and in 2022 he was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Networks South Africa. He brings over 15 years’ experience in the ICT and Telco space, having worked in different countries across the African continent. He is responsible for the leadership, strategy, and operations in the country.

Before joining Liquid, Geyser was the MD for Nokia Southern Africa (2015 – 2020); he was responsible for the complete P+L for Nokia in the 13 countries in his region of responsibility. During his tenure, he was involved in several 4G and 5G launches, Network Virtualisation and Software transformation programmes, Fibre to the Home deals, IP and Optical network deals, and large-scale Managed Services contracts.

Under his dynamic leadership, Nokia Southern Africa was recognised as one of the top-performing regions in the MEA market consecutively for six years. His guidance also ensured his team was afforded the CEO award for the Best Business Partner by the Vodacom CEO twice.

Over the years, he has helped organisations succeed by developing and executing targeted strategies that ensure improved stakeholder returns. His passion for building an organisation with a clear vision and goals is repeatedly showcased in the success of all organisations that he led, be it Nokia or Tigo Tanzania, between 2012 – 2014.

Geyser holds three degrees, a bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering, a bachelor’s degree in IT, and a master’s degree in Engineering Management from the University of Johannesburg. He was also a part-time lecturer on the subject ‘Information Systems’ at the University of Johannesburg between 2001 – 2002.

Martin is a seasoned senior executive who oversees Liquid South Sudan's corporate and business strategy. Martin delivers strategic and operational guidance for Liquid South Sudan while delivering on a cohesive culture that emphasises customer care and service that Liquid is synonymous with across the continent.

Martin has worked for various industries such as telecommunications, health insurance, banking, and audit practice. In addition, he has vast international experience being exposed to working environments in Singapore, United Kingdom, Kenya, Ghana, and Zimbabwe.

Denny is currently the CEO of Liquid Intelligent Technologies Tanzania and Zanlink in Zanzibar. Denny is an adaptive and highly experienced global player with extensive years of providing value to large international global and dynamic Fortune 500 companies. He spent many years in the USA, expanding his academic knowledge and then acquiring valuable work experience and skills while working for companies such as IBM, Lucent Technologies, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Verizon Communications LLC, which springboard his pathway to ZOL Zimbabwe, the retail arm of Liquid Telecom as its CEO from 2014 until 2019. In October 2019, Denny moved to Liquid Telecom South Africa as Group Executive Cloud and Digital Sales and grew the cloud and Digital business exponentially before being appointed Group Executive Enterprise Sales in March 2021.

During his assignment as ZOL Zimbabwe CEO, Denny received numerous business accolades, including being named Marketing Oriented CEO of the Year for 3 consecutive years by the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe (MAZ), awarded the 2016 ICT Businessman of the Year Award by the Ministry of ICT, Customer Service Executive of the Year 2015 – CCAZ Service Excellence Awards and many others. Denny also served as the President of the Marketing Association of Zimbabwe (MAZ) from 2018 until 2020.

Denny is an accomplished, results focused, deadline-oriented Executive driven by new challenges & a desire to be successful in all endeavors.

Dennis is CEO of Liquid Intelligent Technologies Uganda, joining us in March 2019. He is responsible for accelerating Liquid Intelligent Technologies’s growth and market penetration in Uganda.

Dennis possesses proven senior management and operational leadership skills from over 15 years of experience in the Telecommunications and ICT industry.

Prior to joining Liquid Intelligent Technologies Uganda, he was the Business Lead for Oracle in Rwanda, based out of Kenya. He was also previously the Country Manager for Microsoft in Uganda and Rwanda. Dennis’ areas of expertise include strategy development, sales and marketing leadership, profitability and cost analysis, contract negotiations and strategic alliances.

His qualifications include a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from the Makerere University, an MBA from the United States International University in Nairobi and a qualification in Business Strategy and Financial Acumen from the INSEAD Business School.
 

Mark Townsend is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Liquid Intelligent Technologies Zambia. 
 
Mark joined the company on 14 April 2020. He was raised in Zambia and has a long-standing career working across the country's ICT sector. He has more than a decade of senior leadership experience, including three years as Director of Enterprise Business at MTN Zambia and leadership roles at AfriConnect (Vodacom Group). Before joining Liquid Intelligent Technologies Mark was Managing Director at GardaWorld Zambia.
 
Mark is directly responsible for the leadership and strategic management of Liquid Intelligent Technologies's business operations across Zambia. His arrival coincides with the company's next phase of growth - providing fast, reliable connectivity and digital services to more business and consumers across Zambia. This follows the successful launch of Liquid Fibre and Liquid Data-On-The-Go as part of the company's rebrand from Hai to Liquid Intelligent Technologies in 2019.
Liquid Intelligent Technologies Zambia has become one of the country's leading fibre network and mobile data solutions providers. Mark will continue to grow the business while also building on our relationships with key stakeholders including government, regulators, business partners and customers.

In his spare time, Mark enjoys the outdoors, including fishing. He also loves to watch football and is a huge Manchester United fan.

Wellington joined Liquid Intelligent Technologies in February 2009. He oversees and sits on several boards of the Group Companies in Southern Africa. He is directly responsible for the leadership, strategic and operations management of Liquid Intelligent Technologies Zimbabwe.

He has served on several Boards and currently sits on the board of directors of CEC Liquid Zambia, Liquid Botswana and ZOL Zimbabwe. He has been heavily involved in the planning, set up and build of the Liquid Intelligent Technologies network and business in Zimbabwe.

Wellington, who holds a B.Sc. degree and an MBA, has worked in telecommunications, consumer electronics and industrial electronics industries in both the UK and Africa since early 1980s. He has worked in these respective industries at both technical and senior executive levels. He has also worked in senior executive positions in both public and private sectors.

He is a keen golfer and loves watching football – he’s an ardent Manchester United supporter and loves to travel all over the world.