Eaton Towers appoints executive team in Ghana
Eaton Towers , the African tower ownership and management company, has appointed Gareth Townley as Managing Director and Adnan Quddus as Chief Financial Officer of its Ghanaian operations.
Gareth Townley has over 10 years' experience in African telecoms, including most recently CEO at Viasat Broadcasting from 2008 to 2011. Previously Gareth was CEO for Millicom's cellular businesses in Sierra Leone and Ghana from 2003 to 2007.
Adnan Quddus has over 18 years of experience in leading cellular companies. He was formerly CFO for Orascom Telecel in Namibia and prior to that was CFO for Millicom's businesses in Ghana and Tanzania.
Alan Harper, Chief Executive of Eaton Towers, said:“Ghana is a key market for Eaton Towers and we are very pleased to welcome Gareth and Adnan to the team. We are confident that their combined experience and relevant track records will support our plans in the country.“These key appointments provide further momentum to grow our business of selling telecom tower co-location and shared-infrastructure facilities.”
Eaton Towers started business in Ghana in 2010 and serves all of the mobile operators in the country and a growing number of other radio infrastructure users.
In January this year, Eaton Towers secured a $30m debt facility from Standard Bank Group, acting through Stanbic Bank Ghana and the Standard Bank of South Africa, to build and develop both existing and new telecom towers across Ghana. This bank debt financing followed the $150m equity investment into Eaton Towers in September 2011 by Capital International Private Equity Funds (“CIPEF”), a private equity investor that focuses on emerging markets.
Eaton Towers operates towers in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa and has recently established offices in Kenya.
Eaton Towers was founded in 2008 by a team of highly experienced telecoms entrepreneurs with significant expertise in the African telecoms market. The management team includes Chief Executive Alan Harper, formerly on the Executive Committee of Vodafone Group Plc; Chief Financial Officer Peter Lewis, previously Treasurer and Head of Corporate Finance at Millicom; Executive Director Terry Rhodes, former director of Celtel (now Bharti Airtel Africa), and Chairman Sanjiv Ahuja, formerly Chief Executive of Orange.