Cell C CEOs from 2001 to 2023
Cell C has lacked continuity in its leadership for over two decades, with the mobile operator going through nine CEOs between 2001 and 2023.
Frequent changes in a company’s top leadership causes instability, with CEOs and other executives unable to see their long-term strategy all the way through.
Furthermore, most new Cell C CEOs are appointed from outside the company rather than internally — another issue that doesn’t help with continuity.
Cell C’s latest CEO appointment is Jorge Mendes, who took over the position in July 2023 following the exit of Douglas Craigie Stevenson. Brett Copans acted as CEO until Mendes could take the helm.
Mendes has worked in the telecoms sector for over 25 years, 23 of which were served in various executive and managerial roles at Vodacom’s African and international business units.
Most recently, Mendes served as Vodacom’s chief consumer officer for four years before his resignation in January 2023.
Copans was appointed acting CEO following Craigie Stevenson’s departure from the mobile operator in March 2023.
Craigie Stevenson served a four-year stint at the company, including his appointment as acting CEO in March 2019. He was appointed permanent CEO five months later.
He joined Cell C in October 2017 as chief operating officer after the first recapitalisation that saw Blue Label Telecoms take a significant share of the company.
Cell C’s latest financial results — its last under Stevenson — revealed that its revenue declined by 10.9% from R13.3 billion to R11.9 billion.
Although the audited financials showed a massive after-tax profit increase, Blue Label eventually explained that this was due to Cell C’s second recapitalisation and included extraneous income of R6.9 billion.
Subtracting that from Cell C’s reported R4.6 billion profit reveals that the mobile operator had actually made a R2.3 billion after-tax loss during Blue Label’s last financial year.
Stevenson had taken over as CEO from Jose Dos Santos, who had served as the company’s CEO for five years and three months, including a six-month stint as acting CEO from November 2013 to May 2014.
He was appointed interim CEO after Cell C’s then-CEO Alan Knott-Craig suffered a stroke.
Dos Santos was appointed permanent CEO in May 2014.
Before his health took a downturn, Knott-Craig had held the position for a year and eight months, starting from April 2012.
Prior to Knott-Craig’s appointment, then-Cell C chairman Simon Duffy served as acting CEO between July 2011 and April 2012.
Duffy replaced Lars Reichelt, who left the company with immediate effect on 11 July 2011.
Reichelt was an experienced mobile telecommunications executive, having served as CEO of Banglalink, Orascom’s venture in Dhaka, CEO of Telefonica 3G Mobile in Zurich, and Head of Wireless for Yahoo! Europe in London.
Reichelt was appointed Cell C CEO in March 2009 when then-CEO Jeffrey Hedberg decided to leave the company. Hedberg had held the role for just under three years.
Hedberg replaced Talaat El Lahham — the CEO at the time of Cell C’s cellular service launch in South Africa — in May 2006.
A timeline of Cell C’s CEO is summarised in the graphic below.
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