Deon Liebenberg to lead Telkom Business Mobile: rumour

Industry speculation suggest that Samsung South Africa MD Deon Liebenberg is in line to head up Telkom Business Mobile

Rudolph Muller

June 21, 2012

Speculation is rife that Deon Liebenberg, who is the current Samsung SA Managing Director, is in line to head up Telkom Business Mobile.

Telkom Business recently unveiled their first set of converged bundled solutions which offer businesses a range of fixed and mobile solutions on a single bill.

To date, Telkom has not made many inroads into the corporate mobile market, and Liebenberg is widely seen as an expert at growing small companies into large market players.

Before joining Samsung, Liebenberg grew BlackBerry from an emerging brand to the dominant smartphone player in the South African market.

It therefore makes sense that Telkom approached Liebenberg to head up their Telkom Business Mobile division and grow its market share in South Africa.

However, Liebenberg would not be drawn into discussions about the industry speculation, only saying that he is currently employed by Samsung and that he is on leave.

Samsung South Africa also said that Liebenberg is currently on leave, and is still employed by Samsung.

Before joining Samsung, Liebenberg served as the vice president and managing director: Africa at Research In Motion (RIM), the country manager at Motorola South Africa, and the executive head of sales at Vodacom.

Liebenberg is also no stranger to Telkom. Liebenberg started his career at Telkom and left the company a few years later as the youngest senior manager at the operator.