Jonathan Marchbank Gets Top Job at Virgin Mobile South Africa
Virgin Mobile South Africa today announced the appointment of Jonathan Marchbank as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Marchbank takes over from predecessor Steve Bailey, who stepped down in late May 2012 .
Marchbank has most recently been heading up the Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa Group’s activities in Asia, prior to which he served as the Chief Operating Officer for Virgin Mobile USA, and CEO of Virgin Mobile in Australia and Asia before his USA post.
“As the first Virgin Mobile business in the Africa / Middle East region, the success of Virgin Mobile South Africa is key to the newly formed Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa Group. It is for this reason that we have elected to invest significant further funding into the South African business and have asked a CEO of Jonathan’s calibre to lead the company on an accelerated growth trajectory”, said Peter Langkilde, Chairman, Virgin Mobile, Middle East and Africa.
Prior to joining Virgin Mobile, Marchbank served as Managing Director of Telstra’s mobile business in Australia, having spent the previous 10 years as Managing Director at Nokia and Philips in Asia and Australia.
“I will spend the remainder of the year leading the planning and execution of our new go-to-market strategy, a process that is already well underway and which will re-energise the Virgin Mobile business and brand in South Africa with a view to strongly accelerating growth over the next few years,” said Marchbank.
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