Executive Leadership Team

Joined 2010

Tom Greenwood joined Helios Towers in 2010, during the Company’s formation, and was appointed CEO in April 2022. He has held numerous positions since joining, including two prior executive positions (Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer).

Tom has overseen many of the Company’s key milestones, including all 15 major M&A transactions, the inaugural 2017 bond and IPO listing, as well as delivering record operational performance for customers. Since 2020, under Tom’s leadership the Company has doubled its tower portfolio.

Tom joined Helios Towers from PwC, and is a qualified Chartered Accountant of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.

Joined 2016

Manjit Dhillon joined Helios Towers in 2016. He was appointed CFO in January 2021, having held the positions of interim CFO and Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Finance. Manjit is the Head of the London Office and Sustainability and IT also report into him.

Manjit has overseen transactions including capital raisings of c.US$3.5 billion, substantially reducing the cost of capital, and the acquisitions of multiple tower portfolios across six new high-growth markets. He also played a key role throughout the successful IPO of Helios Towers on the London Stock Exchange in 2019.

Prior to Helios Towers, Manjit has held a number of positions in the financial services sector, including with Deloitte, Goldman Sachs and Lyceum Capital. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.

Joined 2010

Philippe Loridon has held a Regional CEO position with Helios Towers since August 2020. His position covers our operations in Tanzania, Senegal, Malawi and Oman.

Philippe previously held the position of CEO of Helios Towers Tanzania from January 2015, and the CEO of Helios Towers Congo and Helios Towers DRC from May 2019 and was previously CEO of Helios Towers DRC between December 2011 and December 2014. He previously served as CEO at Equateur Telecom Congo, where he re-launched Equateur Telecom Congo in Congo Brazzaville.

Prior to this, Philippe accumulated 20 years’ experience in the Telecommunications 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. He was also previously a Director at Be-Mobile. He is a French citizen.

Joined 2020

Sainesh Vallabh is Chief Commercial Officer and Regional CEO Southern Africa and oversees the Commercial function of the company, including business development & M&A, and our South Africa and Madagascar markets. Before becoming Chief Commercial Officer, he was Group Commercial Director and had been leading our operations in South Africa, Madagascar, in addition to Ghana, DRC and Congo Brazzaville, as Regional CEO Southern & Central Africa since August 2020.

Joined 2012

Fritz Dzeklo has been Managing Director of Helios Towers Ghana since July 2019 and was promoted to Regional CEO Central Africa in January 2023. His position covers our operations in Ghana, DRC and Congo Brazzaville. Fritz joined Helios Towers in October 2012, having held various senior roles during his time, including Projects Director for Helios Towers Tanzania and Head of Projects for Helios Towers Ghana. Prior to Helios Towers Ghana, he was at Vodafone Ghana.

Fritz has vast experience in East, Central and West Africa throughout his career. He is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and a citizen of Ghana.

Joined 2021

Allan Fairbairn became Group Director Business Excellence and Delivery in January 2024. He contributes to execution of our Sustainable Business Strategy while leading on SHEQ and Property responsibilities. Prior to this appointment, he had been Director of Delivery and Business Excellence since April 2022. He joined Helios Towers as Director of Operations and Technology in June 2021, focusing on Performance Engineering and Delivery functions of the Group, including Operations, Supply Chain and PMO. He joined Helios Towers from Aggreko, where he held a number of senior positions including Area General Manager for West and Central Africa, a position he held since 2016, and led operations for Africa as an Operations Director in the EMEA team, a position he held for four years prior.

Allan has extensive international experience in setting up and managing technical operations in markets across Africa and the Middle East. He is a Chartered Electrical and Electronic Engineer, a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, an accredited Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and is a British citizen.

Lara Coady was appointed Director of Operations and Engineering in April 2022. In this role, she oversees performance engineering, operations and technology of the company. She joined Helios Towers in 2016 as Group Customer Programme Manager and more recently had held the position of Head of Performance Engineering.

Lara has more than 13 years of work experience in the Africa and Middle East regions. She had held a number of technical positions including Principal Engineer – Performance Management at Aggreko, where she had spent five years prior to joining Helios Towers.

Lara is an accredited Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and is a British citizen.

Doreen Akonor has an extensive HR career having undertaken various roles within Telecommunications, Investment and Financial Services across the UK, EMEA and Africa.

At Vodafone Group, these included being Head of Diversity and Inclusion and Group Senior HR Business Partner for multiple functions in UK, Ghana and Europe and was one of 40 chosen globally for their HR Excellence Programme. Following her time in the telecoms sector, Doreen has worked in private equity focusing on Talent, Diversity & Inclusion, HR strategy and operational performance. With Leapfrog Investments, Doreen was the HR Director for their portfolio companies in Africa & Asia. With Varde Partners, Doreen was HR Lead (Value Creation Group) for their European region leading leadership and organisation initiatives. Doreen was also Chief HR Officer for a leading digital bank in Spain. Furthermore, in a consultancy capacity for Schneider Ross, Doreen has advised the likes of Vodafone and Safaricom on various D&I initiatives and programmes.

Doreen holds a Master’s in Human Resources Management, is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personal Development and has completed HR Executive Programme at Harvard Business School and is a member of International Coach Federation.

Joined 2020

Paul Barrett joined Helios Towers plc as General Counsel and Company Secretary in April 2020. Prior to joining Helios Towers, Paul was Director of Legal and Company Secretary at RAC Motoring Services, a position which he assumed in July 2018. Before this, he held interim positions as General Counsel of Helios Towers, Ltd. and Legal Director at Prudential plc. From 2006 until February 2017, Paul was Head of Legal Affairs at Home Retail Group plc, the then parent company of Argos and Homebase and the UK’s largest non-food retailer.

Paul has an LLB (Hons) in Business Law and qualified as a Barrister before moving into industry. He has extensive senior management and board level experience, domestically and internationally, in both listed and private companies. He is a British citizen.

Joined 2015

Gwakisa Stadi took on additional responsibilities as Regional Director East Africa in January 2024 and has been the Managing Director of Helios Towers Tanzania since July 2021. Prior to this appointment, Gwakisa held the position of Finance Director for Helios Towers Tanzania from 2017, where he successfully led the Finance function in our largest market, having joined the business in 2015 as Financial Controller.

Joined 2021

Karim Ndiaye joined Helios Towers as Managing Director for Senegal in March 2021, launching operations in our sixth market. In his capacity as Regional Director Central and West Africa, he also supports our operations in Ghana and Congo Brazzavile.

Prior to joining Helios Towers, Karim held the role of Regional Asset Management Director for the Meridiam Investment Africa Fund, an infrastructure investment fund. In this role, he supported the fund in the opening of their Dakar office and was responsible for the management of several large infrastructure projects across West and Central Africa in sectors including Renewable Energy and Transport & Logistics.

Karim is an accredited Lean Six Sigma Orange Belt with almost two decades of international experience in senior management roles in companies including Matforce, Ericsson, Aggreko & Man Energy Solutions, delivering power projects across Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a Senegalese national.

Joined 2019

Marinus Gieselbach has been the Managing Director of Helios Towers South Africa since June 2020. In his capacity as Regional Director Southern Africa, he also supports our operation in Madagascar.

Marinus joined Helios Towers South Africa as the Operations Director in 2019. Prior to joining Helios Towers, he held executive positions in operations, commercial and finance with Vulatel, Dimension Data Advanced Infrastructure and Plessey. During this time, he delivered various tower, fibre and data centre projects in 12 African countries over a period of 14 years.

Marinus holds a Bachelor of Commerce Honours in Financial Management from the University of Pretoria. He is a citizen of South Africa.

Joined 2010

David Dzigba first joined Helios Towers in Ghana as Financial Reporting Manager in 2010. He went on to become Finance Director from 2014 to 2021. David was offered an international assignment as Launch Director in Malawi in 2022 where he successfully set up our team and operations on the ground.

He is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACCA UK, CA Ghana) with an MBA (Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden), and BSc Admin, Accounting (University of Ghana, Legon).

Joined 2011

Colard Nkole Tshiyoyo became the Managing Director of Helios Towers DRC in October 2022. Previously Colard held the role of Managing Director for Helios Towers Madagascar and Helios Towers Congo Brazzaville. Colard joined Helios Towers in 2011 and has undertaken many roles including Project Manager, Project Director and Head of Performance Engineering. Colard is a Civil Engineer from the University of Kinshasa and, since 2009, has been a Professor Assistant in the Civil Engineering department at the University and a certified Project Manager since 2016.

Colard has over 17 years’ experience in the Telecommunications industry and before joining Helios, Colard was working for Airtel as the Site Supervisor in 2004 and then Project Supervisor in 2006. Colard is a Congolese (DRC) citizen.

Joined 2022

Maixent Bekangba joined Helios Towers as Managing Director of Helios Towers Congo Brazzaville in June 2022.

Prior to joining Helios Towers Congo Brazzaville, Maixent was most recently CEO of Property Technology Africa, an infrastructure design company for smart buildings and connected cities. In addition to his experience at the Executive level in several markets across Africa within Telecom industry, Maixent has also spent 13 years at Airtel where he held a number of senior management roles in Chad, Congo Brazzaville as Chief Commercial and later on Director of Merger and Integration before moving to Madagascar where he was Managing Director.

Joined 2020

Angelo Govina has been the Managing Director of Helios Towers Ghana since August 2023, having previously held the position of Deputy Managing Director since 2022. He joined Helios Towers Ghana as Sales & Marketing Director in 2020, and has played a central role in managing key stakeholder relationships to support customers to expand and improve their network coverage.

Prior to joining Helios Towers Ghana, Angelo held senior sales and commercial roles across leading global brands in shipping, logistics and telecoms industries including Maersk, DHL and Vodafone. He holds an MBA and BSc in Admin and Management, both from the University of Ghana Business School.

Joined 2014

Ahmat Ousmane has been the Managing Director of Helios Towers Madagascar since October 2022. Prior to this appointment, Ahmat held the position of Launch Director, where he successfully worked setting up and integrating new markets in Senegal, Oman & Madagascar.

Ahmat joined Helios Towers in 2014 and has held several management positions in different functions, from SHEQ, Projects, Operations to Business Excellence.

Prior to joining Helios Towers, Ahmat worked as a Quality Manager at Norwest Group International, Glencore & Schlumberger in Chad and abroad.

He holds an Engineer’s degree in Geophysics & Environment from Doukkali University (Morocco) & Oklahoma State University (USA). He is a certified Lead Auditor from the British Standard Institution (UK) and certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Ahmat is a citizen from Chad.

Joined 2021

Jadawy Al Riyamy was appointed Managing Director of Helios Towers Oman in July 2023. Prior to this, Jadawy had held the position of Middle East Business Development Director at Helios Towers since February 2022, successfully engaging customers across the Middle East and supporting the acquisition Omantel’s tower assets as part of Helios Towers’ first expansion into the region.

Jadawy is an experienced Technical and Management Professional with a track record of over 20 years of success in overseeing and delivering strategic projects. He has worked for Emirates Airlines, Motorola, and consulted on Technical Services delivery industries. He attended the University of Strathclyde for his undergraduate engineering degree in Electrical and Electronics Technology and also holds a Masters Certificate from George Washington University in Project Management.

Joined 2020

Sima Varsani joined Helios Towers in May 2020 as our first Group Sustainability Manager and helped to develop our sustainable business strategy. She works with teams across the business to drive our positive social and economic impact and to reduce our environmental footprint.

She previously held sustainability roles in consultancy as well as at the GSMA (the mobile industry association), Vodafone and Sainsbury’s.

Sima has a Classics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a British citizen.

Joined 2019

Craig James joined Helios Towers in October 2019, having previously been Head of Information Technology (‘IT’) at Ophir Energy, an African and Asian focused oil and gas exploration and production company. Craig has over 25 years’ experience in the field of Information Technology. He started his career at Barclays, has experience in the Telecommunications sector and previously held roles as Global IT Architect and Head of IT (Asia Pacific) at a FTSE 100 multinational mining organisation. Craig also has consulting experience with BP, AWE and Credit Suisse.

Craig holds IT industry qualifications and has over 18 years’ experience working across Africa. He also holds an MBA Essentials certification from the London School of Economics. He is a British citizen.

Beki Muinde is Group Regulatory and Public Affairs Director. Beki has created the Group’s overall strategy for regulators and public bodies and led numerous engagements with senior state and intrastate officials. Since joining Helios in 2018 as Deputy General Counsel, Beki has been an instrumental member of the team in closing all M&A transactions over the last few years and held the position of Director of Business Development and Regulatory Affairs until the end of 2023.