Telecom giant MTN has made changes to its top management aimed at large scale transformation in a convergent operation.

MTN has appointed Vodafone Germany veteran Jens Schulte-Bockum as group chief operating officer (COO).

Jens Schulte-Bockum will succeed Jyoti Desai, who is retiring from MTN.

Jens Schulte-Bockum was the CEO of Vodafone Germany between 2012 and 2015.

MTN has also appointed BT Global Services executive Oliver Fortuin as the head of its enterprise business.

Oliver Fortuin, who will be the executive head of Business Enterprise of MTN, is currently the CEO of BT Global Services Sub Saharan Africa. Earlier, Oliver Fortuin worked at IBM, HP and Lenovo.

As head of BT Global Services, Oliver was engaged in the development and sale of enterprise solutions to many multinationals across the African continent.

Bernice Samuels has re-joined MTN as group executive of Marketing. Bernice was previously chief marketing officer in MTN SA, prior to assuming a similar role at FNB. She subsequently assumed the position of executive director of Strategy and Business Development at SABMiller in South Africa.

Bernice will greatly assist in lifting and repositioning product development and uplifting the MTN brand to maintain its pre-eminent position in Africa and the Middle East.

“These senior management appointments bring to finality the management aspect of a large scale transformation and operational review process,” said Phuthuma Nhleko, executive chairman.