9mobile appoints new CTO, Deputy CTO, Director of Strategy

By Chinenye Anuforo, Lagos

9mobile has announced a new Chief Technical Officer (CTO), Deputy Chief Technical Officer, and Director of Strategy within its Senior Management team.

Juergen Peschel has been appointed as the new CTO, Baqi Salihu, Deputy CTO, and Karn Gulati as Director of Strategy.

As CTO, Peschel, an experienced professional with an international executive track record within the IT, Managed Services & Telecommunications Industry, including expertise in a wide variety of industry verticals and markets, will oversee the evolution and integration of the company’s technical functions.

Peschel has over 25 years of extensive international and operational experience as a technology and business leader. Over the years, he has led Information Technology teams, built VAS Services, IP, and transport networks for Vodafone across all European markets, and engaged with emerging markets across the world for subsea, carrier, and satellite services. He successfully launched the mobile payment service Mpesa in Kenya.

As Deputy CTO, Salihu will support the CTO to drive technology decisions in line with current trends and align the technical and transformation initiatives of 9mobile.

He is a seasoned professional with over 18 years of Mobile Telecoms Engineering, Operations, RF Planning & Optimization and Digital Services experience. He led the Network QOS and Support Department of 9mobile as the Director Network Quality of Service since June 2018.

Salihu executed the LTE re-farm solution using 1800MHz spectrum, achieving wider mobile broadband coverage, slashing the number of sites, and reducing carbon emissions while ensuring high-quality data service. This project significantly reduced TCO, enhanced users’ mobile broadband quality of experience, increased brand value for 9mobile while saving about $152m in spectrum fees. He joined 9mobile in December 2008.

The new Director of Strategy, Gulati, will be responsible for developing strategic, tactical, and operational initiatives.

He is a long-serving Management Consultant with over 12 years of experience in the telecom and technology sector. He has led Advisory services teams focusing on Telecom, Media & Technology (TMT) industry and has worked across India, Africa, and South East Asia for various telecom clients. He also took a break and founded a tech & food start-up during his entrepreneurial stint for three years. His accomplishments include programme management of large-scale projects, achieving operational excellence with digitization and process engineering, customer strategy, and greenfield launches.

In their roles, the trio will lead decisions in line with current trends and strategic vision within their respective areas. They will provide hands-on leadership in ensuring that the 9mobile plans are fully aligned and structured to deliver its business goals.

Commenting on their appointments, Chief Executive Officer, 9mobile, Alan Sinfield said: “9mobile remains fully committed to executing its business strategies with the help of a high-performing team of dedicated, hardworking employees. The collective knowledge, expertise, and experience that Juergen, Baqi, and Karn bring to the Organisation further strengthen our business. It reinforces our position at the forefront of delivering excellent products and services to our over 13 million customers. These promotions continue to consolidate the leadership of our Organisation and are evidence of the great career opportunities that employment with 9mobile offers.”