CEO of Proximus to leave for Vodafone
The CEO of Belgian telecom operator Proximus has announced that he is leaving Proximus to join British telecom company Vodafone. Guillaume Boutin has been with Proximus for seven years and has been CEO since December 2019. No successor has yet been named.
Late last year, MP Michael Freilich of the N-VA party and MR’s party leader Georges-Louis Bouchez were critical in the media of Proximus' policy under Boutin. They denounced the fall in its share price, after which Boutin and the chair of the board, Stefaan De Clerck, explained the situation in the federal parliament's public enterprises committee.
Boutin also came under fire for Proximus' international expansion policy, with the acquisition of Indian cloud specialist Route Mobile, making the Belgian telecom group increasingly committed to international, digital communication services for businesses.
With US-based Telesign, bought in 2017 under predecessor Dominique Leroy, and BICS, Route Mobile became part of the new Proximus Global branch late last year.
The acquisition of Route Mobile coincided with costly investments in laying fibre-optic cables for high-speed internet and converting the mobile network to 5G technology. To this was added the launch of Digi late last year as the fourth telecom operator in Belgium and thus a new rival to Proximus.
'Immense contribution'
“During his CEO tenure, Guillaume initiated a major acceleration of fibre and 5G deployment in Belgium and paved the way for cooperation agreements with industry peers to reduce the duplication of fibre networks,” Proximus said in a press release.
“Together with his leadership squad, he has transformed Proximus into the leading operator in Belgium in terms of growth and commercial results and achieved important milestones, such as the creation of Proximus NXT and the launch of Proximus Global, one of the world leaders in digital communications.”
"He has transformed Proximus into the leading operator in Belgium in terms of growth and commercial results"
De Clerck thanked Boutin “for his immense contribution to the Proximus Group”.
“His departure will certainly cause intense emotions in the Proximus community,” he said. He added that Boutin “successfully put Proximus back in a position to generate long-term profitable growth in both domestic and international markets and ensured the rollout of both mobile and fixed networks of the future.”
Boutin said that “Proximus is well prepared for the future and can count on strong foundations and incredible talent”.
Proximus CEO Guillaume Boutin at the federal parliament © BELGA PHOTO HATIM KAGHAT
Related news
