ECMS Takes New Chair

Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (ECMS) announced Sunday that it has a new Chairman of the Board in the person of Alex Shalaby, now Chief Executive Officer. Shalaby replaces Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris effective September 1.

Shalaby's replacement as CEO of ECMS will be Hassan Kabbani, it added. Kabbani, who is of Lebanese origin, has been running the Algerian mobile operator Djezzy since 2003. Shalaby told Reuters he would also replace Sawiris as chairman of Mobinil, a company which owns 51 percent of ECMS. But Sawiris will remain on both boards, he added.

"Naguib has been chairman for 10 years and was looking for a change and also for continuity," Shalaby said.

As chairman Shalaby will play a larger role in relations with the government and the regulatory authority. "It would be good to have someone who would dedicate a little bit more time to this and without the executive role," Shalaby added.

About ECMS

Egyptian Company for Mobile Services is an Egyptian Shareholding Company, established in 1998 for the purpose of executing, managing, developing, and operating Egypt’s first GSM network. Key components of the company's revenues are: ongoing customer airtime, inbound interconnect access fee, SMS revenue, roaming, and 3G revenue.