{"id":404547,"date":"2021-07-02T11:01:54","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T09:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=404547"},"modified":"2021-07-02T11:29:42","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T09:29:42","slug":"multichoice-executive-exodus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/404547-multichoice-executive-exodus.html","title":{"rendered":"MultiChoice executive exodus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The exodus of senior personnel at South African pay-TV giant MultiChoice has continued in 2021, with two more executives leaving the company in the last few weeks.<\/p>\n

In an email sent to employees on Thursday, Group CEO Calvo Mawela announced that MultiChoice Africa Holdings (MAH) CEO Brand De Villiers is leaving the company to pursue other business interests.<\/p>\n

De Villiers, a qualified Chartered Accountant, served for nearly six years at MultiChoice.<\/p>\n

He joined the company as Strategy and New Business Director in December 2015 and was appointed as MAH CEO in January 2017.<\/p>\n

De Villiers will be replaced by the current Director of MultiChoice Africa Southern Region, Fhulu Badugela, starting from 1 August.<\/p>\n

MyBroadband has also learnt that Natasha Matos-Hemingway is leaving the company after less than two years as MultiChoice Connected Video Chief Marketing Officer.<\/p>\n

Matos-Hemingway started at MultiChoice in October 2019 after nine years in various roles at Microsoft and Google.<\/p>\n

The latest shift in the company’s executive team follows three other senior executives departing MultiChoice in 2020.<\/p>\n

This started with MultiChoice Connected Video CEO Nicklas Ekdahl’s resignation in July, followed by Chief Strategy Officer Max Krudop leaving the company in August.<\/p>\n

Shortly thereafter, MultiChoice South Africa CEO Mark Rayner resigned after 14-years at the broadcaster.<\/p>\n

Another notable resignation in the same year was MultiChoice Connected Video’s head of communications Richard Boorman.<\/p>\n

It’s not clear what is behind the flurry of resignations. However, it has been speculated<\/strong><\/a> that MultiChoice CEO Calvo Mawela\u2019s management style and strategic direction were the cause.<\/p>\n

Below is an overview of the high-profile resignations and departures at MultiChoice over the last year, as well as the appointees who replaced or will be replacing them.<\/p>\n

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Brand de Villiers has held multiple high-profile positions in corporate South Africa.<\/p>\n

He started his career at Vodacom South Africa and later became shareholder and CEO of investment company Marc Group, which focused on commercialising sports and marketing rights in Africa.<\/p>\n

Before taking over from Tim Jacobs at MultiChoice, De Villers served as PSL CEO.<\/p>\n

De Villiers’ replacement, Fhulu Badugela, has been with MultiChoice since 2007 and previously headed operations at M-Net.<\/p>\n

Mawela said in this capacity, Badugela built an effective operational management team and ensured the operations of M-Net ran efficiently.<\/p>\n

He also said she has helped deliver excellent results for the Group in her work as director of the Southern Africa region.<\/p>\n

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Natasha Matos-Hemingway was MultiChoice’s Connected Video Chief Marketing Officer.<\/p>\n

Before joining the company, she was Microsoft 365 Commercial and Marketing Director for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) for four years.<\/p>\n

Before this, she served as Google’s regional sales head for Israel, Greece and Sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n

MultiChoice did not confirm Matos-Hemingway’s resignation or who would replace her.<\/p>\n

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Mark Rayner joined MultiChoice in 2007, where he initially served as the chief financial officer of DStv Mobile.<\/p>\n

In September 2008, he was appointed DStv Mobile CEO, and in November 2013, he became MultiChoice South Africa chief operating officer.<\/p>\n

Rayner was promoted to CEO in May 2016.<\/p>\n

Rayner’s replacement, Nyiko Shiburi, previously served as the director of MultiChoice Africa for the Southern Region.<\/p>\n

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Niclas Ekdahl was appointed as MultiChoice Connected Video CEO in September 2018.<\/p>\n

During his tenure, he drove several key projects at the Connected Video unit, including a redesign of the DStv Now interface and the launches of Showmax\u2019s R49 mobile-only plan and Showmax Pro subscription.<\/p>\n

He was replaced by MultiChoice Group general entertainment CEO Yolisa Phahle, who currently acts in both capacities.<\/p>\n

Phahle is a seasoned broadcasting veteran with eight years of experience as a senior producer at the BBC and almost four years at M-Net before being appointed in her current role.<\/p>\n

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Max Krudop joined MultiChoice Group as chief strategy officer in May 2018, where he was also responsible for new investments, partnerships, and special projects.<\/p>\n

Before joining MultiChoice, he served as strategy director at Naspers.<\/p>\n

Krudop’s replacement has not been announced.<\/p>\n

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Now read: DStv vs Online streaming \u2014 Pricing showdown<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African pay-TV giant MultiChoice has lost five experienced senior executives over the past year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":404573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,19],"tags":[68368,24196,35,2546,66498,475,70519,54773,37400,23998],"class_list":["post-404547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","category-business","tag-brand-de-villiers","tag-calvo-mawela","tag-headline","tag-mark-rayner","tag-max-krudop","tag-multichoice","tag-natasha-matos-hemingway","tag-niclas-ekdahl","tag-nyiko-shiburi","tag-yolisa-phahle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404547"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404595,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404547\/revisions\/404595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}