Tigo Rwanda, yesterday, announced the appointment of Austrian national, Tom Gutjahr, as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), replacing Marcelo Aleman, who was transferred to Tanzania.

Officials at the Muhima-based mobile operator said that Gutjahr has assumed work as the head of the company.
Gutjahr, who flew into the country last week, replaces Marcelo Aleman who served as Tigo Rwanda’s CEO for almost a year before he was promoted to head a much bigger operation in Tanzania.

"Marcelo was at the helm at Tigo Rwanda when the company amassed over 600,000 subscribers in a space of just seven months, surpassing Rwandatel as the second most subscribed cellular company in Rwanda,” Tigo said in a statement sent to the Business Times.

This is the second time Tigo is replacing their CEO in a period of one year. Marcelo replaced Alex Kamara, who was the CEO during the official launch of their operations.

Kamara was appointed as Head of Regulatory Affairs for the East African region at Millicom’s head quarters in Tanzania.  
Both Tigo Rwanda and Tigo Tanzania are part of Millicom International Cellular (MIC), a global telecommunications group with mobile telephony operations in 13 countries in Latin America and Africa, with a combined population under license of approximately 260 million people.

According to the statement, before being appointed to head the Rwandan operation, Gutjahr was successful growing the Tigo operation in Chad for the last two years.

Tigo Rwanda says that Gutjahr has vast experience in brand repositioning and marketing communications in the telecom industry. He has worked in various operations including Orascom Telecom in Algeria, Mobilkom, Austria and Vodafone Slovenia.

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