Executive team

Kash Pandya

Chief Executive Officer

Kash has been Chief Executive Officer of Helios Towers since July 2015.

Previously, he spent eight years with Aggreko plc, where he sat on the Board, running the European Business for three years. He was also Managing Director of Aggreko International for five years, with responsibility for Africa, South America, Central America, India, Asia, Australasia and the Middle East. In this role, Kash oversaw a doubling in size of Aggreko’s international business, heading up launches in over 10 African countries.

Kash began his career at the age of 16 through an engineering apprenticeship. He then went on to complete a Bachelor’s degree in Technology Engineering and a Master’s in Manufacturing.

In 1989, he began his progression through leading engineering and manufacturing companies, starting at Jaguar before moving to roles within General Electric and Caradon. In 1999, Kash joined APW to lead all operations outside the United States, taking the business through a process of re-engineering and consolidation across 23 factories.

In 2004, he became the CEO of Johnston Group, a publicly quoted company, leaving the business on its sale to Ennstone plc.

Tom Greenwood

Chief Financial Officer

Tom joined Helios Towers in 2010 and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in September 2015. He is responsible for all finance and IT activities across the group.

Prior to his appointment as CFO, Tom was Helios Towers’ Group Finance Director and has been instrumental in managing and raising debt and equity for the group, as well as being a key member of the team for all acquisitions and country set-ups.

Tom also led the set-up of all financial systems, operations and HT’s shared service centre. He joined Helios Towers from PwC, where he was part of the TMT Transaction Services team, focusing on M&A and re-financings, mainly in the telecoms sector.

Tom is a Chartered Accountant of the ICAEW (ACA).

Alex Leigh

Chief Commercial Officer

Alex was appointed to the Executive Team of Helios Towers in October 2015, and is responsible for commercial, business development and sales activity.

Prior to joining the Executive Team, he served as Business Development Director covering M&A, equity raises and business development. Alex has negotiated many of HT’s major customer agreements and has been a key team member in the capital raising activities of the Group.

Before joining HT, Alex worked at both UBS and Rothschild, primarily advising TMT companies in an M&A capacity. He has been involved in over 20 M&A transactions and eight leveraged finance deals, and has provided strategic advice to large TMT companies across Europe.

Philippe Loridon

CEO HT Tanzania

Philippe Loridon has been a Director of HTT since January 2015 and joined HTT from Helios Towers DRC, where he had been Chief Executive Officer since December 2011.

He previously served as Chief Executive Officer at Equateur Telecom Congo, where he re-launched ETC in the Republic of Congo. Prior to this, Philippe accumulated 20 years’ experience in the telecoms industry with MNOs based in San Marino, Israel and Papua New Guinea.

This included 13 years at Hutchison Whampoa, fulfilling senior roles in sales, marketing and business development before first becoming CEO of Hutchison Sri Lanka in 1998, and then Head of Hutchison Telecommunications’ Latin American operations between 2000 and 2002.

Jeffrey Schumacher

CEO HT Ghana & HT Congo Brazzaville

Jeffrey Schumacher has been Chief Executive Officer—Helios Towers Ghana since September 2015 & Helios Towers Congo since October 2016.

Mr. Schumacher joined the Company in 2011 and has also held senior positions during the set-up, launch and growth phases at subsidiaries in Tanzania, DRC, and Chad, most recently where he was the managing director. Prior to the Company, Mr. Schumacher was an investment professional at Soros Fund Management LLC and actively involved with the Company since its formation in 2009. Mr. Schumacher holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering (magna cum laude) from Northwestern University in the United States.

Leon-Paul Manya Okitanyenda

CEO HT DRC

Leon-Paul Manya Okitanyenda has been Chief Executive Officer—Helios Towers DRC since January 2015.

Mr. Manya Okitanyenda was appointed Network Operations Director in February 2011. He has over 12 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Manya Okitanyenda worked as a Contract Execution Manager at Ericsson and Country Field Manager for MER Telecom.

Before MER Telecom, he was Operations Manager for Venture and Logistics Manager at Plessey. Mr. Manya Okitanyenda holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Mathematics and is from DRC.

Colin Gaston

Director of Operations and Technology

Colin joined HT in October 2015 as Director of Operations and Technology.

Previously, he held several senior positions at Aggreko from 2000 to 2013, including Operations Director for the International Business, Regional Director for West and Central Africa, and Head of Logistics. He then worked as an independent consultant in Dubai for two years before joining Helios Towers.

Colin also has 20 years of international experience in senior management roles with Schlumberger, and is an accredited Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Roy Cursley

Director of Operational PMO

Roy has been Director of Operational Programme Management Office since October 2016, having joined Helios Towers a year previously.

Prior to HT, Roy was Head of Projects, Planning & Continuous Improvement at Aggreko. He has a wealth of experience in both South Africa and the East Africa region, and is an accredited Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. 

Nick Summers

Director of Corporate Services

Nick has been HT’s Director of Corporate Services since October 2015.

He joined Helios Towers in 2010 after spending nine years with Vodafone in various deployment roles; both in the United Kingdom and internationally. Having had responsibility for the implementation of all Special Projects and indoor schemes for Corporate, Retail and VIP customers in the UK, he took on the role as National Head of RAN Deployment for Vodafone Ghana (previously the state-owned Ghana Telecom).

Within HT Nick is responsible for Group Human Resources; Group Health, Safety, Environmental and Quality Management, and Group Ethics and Compliance. He also provides oversight on Corporate Social Responsibility activities.

Helen Ebert

Chief Legal Officer

Helen joined in January 2018 and brings a wealth of experience to the role of Chief Legal Officer at Helios Towers.

She was previously General Counsel at Exterion Media (formerly CBS outdoor) and held senior roles at World Fuel Services; and the Vista Group.

She also has extensive experience of working for international law firms in London and Singapore, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Slaughter and May, and Linklaters.

Helen has significant international M&A, general commercial and compliance experience in EMEA, Asia-Pacific, USA, Russia and Egypt.

She is qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales and has a law degree from Cambridge University.