Last Friday was Mazen Mroue’s last day in office as MTN Uganda CEO.
For those that didn’t know; the extremely successful, popular, result driven, just a tweet away, people centric, technology savvy; Mr Mazen Mroue was a few weeks ago appointed the Chief Operations Officer of MTN Irancell, the second biggest operation in MTN Group with over 48 million subscribers.
In his two years and two months as CEO, Mazen changed MTN Uganda from just the biggest telecom in Uganda to both biggest and fastest growing in almost all business lines it is involved in. His achievements in two years can make one think his tenure was for 8 years.
Fast forward, in two years, he grew subscribers’ base from slightly above 7 million to about 9.6 million subscribers as of May 2014. The telecom giant will in a few weeks from now celebrate its 10 millionth subscriber.
In the same period, MTN Mobile Money registered users grew from just 2.5 million to more than 5 million, data/internet users grew from about 1.5 million to more than 4 million users, the company’s revenue and profitability equally raised in that short time.
Better still, during Mazen’s tenure, MTN’s Social Media fan base grew from about 50,000 to over 380,000 fans currently, network sites increased, fiber cables were laid across Uganda, more taxes paid to the government and more jobs created among other things.
As of the end of 2013, MTN Uganda was the biggest tax payer, paying more than 300 billion in taxes and contributing about 4 percent to the country’s annual GDP.
But that is not all. Two years ago, MTN Uganda was embroiled in internal fraud cases involving staff. The CEO changed this around and re-installed the company’s pillars of complete accountability, and zero tolerance to fraud.
These and more brought fresh breath in MTN Uganda and re-energized majority of MTN staff thus performing their duties diligently.
Outside MTN Uganda, Mazen has been the most popular CEO MTN Uganda has ever had. He has also been only a tweet away from resolving a customer issue involving MTN. Twitter users can agree that Mazen replied to almost every tweet addressed to him. That is why, he is currently one of the most followed personalities among Uganda Twitter users.
He enjoyed his stay in Uganda, visited almost most of the best places in the Pearl of Africa; a land of beauties and wonders.
I remember during a Pakasa forum organized by Vision group, Mazen told that gathering that he will forever be Uganda’s tourism ambassador and volunteered to be a tourism advisor; requesting for no pay or allowances in return.
In his last communication to MTN Uganda staff after his Friday farewell party, Mazen noted;
“Yes, this week was my last week at MTN Uganda after an exciting, most enjoyable and highly successful 2 years. As much as I am delighted to take on the new challenge in MTN Irancell, I am also very sad to be leaving Uganda and the fabulous MTN Uganda team,” Mazen said, adding:
“Uganda is and will always be, very special to me. Not only have I benefited from career success, but I have thoroughly enjoyed living and working here.”
Mazen’s stay at MTN Uganda will forever be remembered for innovation, massive success and great customer experience.
He has been replaced by Brian Gouldie, the former Chief Marketing Officer of MTN South Africa.
Brian comes with vast experience, having worked in different MTN Operations and other companies at different levels.
HiPipo.com wishes Mazen and Brian much more success at their new assignments!
