Accra, October 9, 2017//-The Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Ghana, Lucy Quist on Monday 9, October 2017 resigned from the telecommunications company.
Her resignation was expected following the merger of Tigo and Airtel operations to become a new single entity.
In a Facebook post titled ‘Climb’ on Monday, Mrs Quist said: “The time is right for me to move on to the next chapter”.
She joined Airtel Ghana in 2014 as the first Ghanaian female CEO of a major multinational telecom company. During her tenure, she successfully led her team to reposition and transform Airtel Ghana into one of the fastest growing telecom companies in the country as well as the industry leader in data and digital innovation and the most loved telecom brand in the daily lives of Ghanaians.
Groundbreaking initiatives
Mrs Quist is noted for the introduction of groundbreaking initiatives under her tenure as the CEO of Airtel Ghana.
These include the introduction of bespoke sub brands and value propositions for customers – such as Airtel Premier, the telecom industry’s first ever sub brand that provides telecom and lifestyle solutions for High Value customers.
She led the creation of Airtel’s Data Business – building a specific sub brand to grow the data side of the business – resulting in a significant growth in customer and revenue market share for data.
Network growth and expansion
Mrs Quist took over the company when Airtel’s mobile voice subscriber base was nothing to write home about. But she worked hard to grow the network voice and data subscription figures.
Airtel’s mobile voice subscriptions stood at 4,217,490 as at the end of July 2017. This brought its total market share for the month under review was 11.36%.
Airtel’s Data Business became the channel for digital inclusion and some of the most remarkable innovations in the data and internet service provider space within the Ghanaian telecom industry.
Airtel Ghana under her dynamic leadership was the first to introduce Free Facebook in 2015 and also zero-rated over 40 sites across education, media, healthcare and lifestyle which enabled thousands of Ghanaians, who would otherwise be excluded, to be digitally included.
The company followed up with other breakthrough innovations such as Bundles on Facebook which enables the purchase of data bundles in real time on Facebook, dual recharge cards that enabled customers to directly load either data or airtime from the same recharge card among others.
Strong advocator of STEM
Mrs. Quist has been a strong advocate for corporate citizenship and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) – enabling Airtel Ghana to play a significant role in the social and economic development of the country through the company’s community investment programmes such as Airtel Touching Lives, Airtel Rising Stars, Schools Adoption programme and the Evolve with STEM initiative – which she personally championed to transform mindsets and empower young people to embrace STEM.
Through her exemplary leadership, Airtel Ghana has been recognised repeatedly by reputable organisations in Ghana, Africa and globally.
Also, Mrs Quist has been involved in many initiatives targeted at young people. In recent times, she has embarked on the “Bold New Normal Tour” to empower young people to fully realise their potential.
Awards
The telecom company is reported to have won over 30 major competitive awards during her tenure including Best Data and Internet Service Provider, Telecom Business of the Year, Best CSR initiative in Africa and at the Global Carrier Awards.
Mrs. Quist has personally been recognised by several reputable organisations for her transformational and inspirational leadership, her exceptional strategic marketing insights, selfless dedication to growing people and for championing causes that are shaping the lives of young people on the continent.
Some of the awards she won are – Corporate Leadership Award (Ghana Legacy Honours 2017), Telecom CEO of the Year (Ghana ICT and Telecoms Award 2016), CSR CEO of the year (Ghana CSR Excellence Awards 2016) and CIMG Marketing Woman of the year (2014).
She is on the Board of many distinguished local and international organisations including the International Board for African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), Petra Trust Company Ltd, the Business Environment Enabling Programme under the UK Department of International Development (DFID), the Climate Innovation Center Ghana and The Exploratory among others.
She is a founding member of the Executive Women Network, a non-profit organization of women in senior management and executive positions committed to inspiring, empowering and supporting women executives to succeed and become influential both locally and internationally.
Mrs Quist graduated with first-class honors degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the university of University of East London, and also holds an MBA from INSEAD in France.
Started her career at Ford Moto company, before stepping foot in Telecom in 2008. She worked at Millicom, Vodafone before taking over the helm of affairs at Airtel which she resigned today.
African Eye Report
