Tele2 said telecoms veteran James Maclaurin will be appointed as its interim CFO from Oct. 1 while the company continues its search for a successor to Alison Kirkby, who has moved up to become group president and CEO.
The operator explained it chose Maclaurin based on his 22 years' experience as a telecoms executive, which includes extensive CFO know-how gained with companies including Axiata Group in Malaysia, Vodafone's central European and African businesses, pan-African operator Celtel, and UK-based software company UbiNetics.
Maclaurin has been appointed while Tele2 searches for a replacement for Alison Kirkby, who is to succeed Mats Granryd as president and CEO. While that position came into effect on Sept. 1, Granryd is staying with the company until the year-end to smooth the transition before taking up a new role as the director general of the GSMA.
Kirkby said Maclaurin's "breadth of financial and operational experience in the telecoms industry is perfect for Tele2 at this time".
One of Maclaurin's first tests could be accounting for a €12 million ($13.7 million) payment due to Netherlands incumbent KPN following a court ruling this week.
The fees cover wholesale network charges relating to colocation services on KPN's fixed-line copper network that the incumbent claimed were due following an amendment to wholesale prices ordered by Netherlands regulator ACM in 2014, Telecompaper reported.
Tele2 this week lost an appeal against an earlier court decision upholding the charges levied by KPN, the news agency reported noting that Tele2 had previously said it has not made provision for the sum because it did not believe it would have to make the payment.
Maclaurin's appointment was the second change announced in Tele2's leadership this week.
The company separately announced that Mario Zanotti resigned from its board of directors, and that its board would run with six members until a decision on whether to replace Zanotti is made at its AGM in May 2016.
For more:
- see Tele2's Maclaurin announcement
- view the company's Zanotti statement
- read this Telecompaper article
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