Second STC CEO quits post in less than a year

Dr. Khaled Abdulaziz Al-Ghoneim, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Saudi Telecom Company, resigned from his post yesterday.
It was the second resignation of a STC group chief executive officer in 10 months, and marks another high-level management shift over the past year.
Confirming the resignation, an official from the company told Arab News that the letter of resignation was submitted by Al-Ghoneim at 10 a.m. yesterday.
According to a statement on Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange website, STC said it had accepted Ghoneim’s resignation, but did not name a replacement or say when Ghoneim would leave his position.
Al-Ghoneim was appointed as the group CEO of Saudi Telecom Company in June 2012. He succeeded Saud Al-Dawish, who had quit his post last year.
Last August, the company announced a number of changes within its management structure involving executive positions.
The STC Group earlier announced that it had accepted the resignation of Ghasan Hasbani from his position as Group CEO-international operations due to the end of the contractual period.
In September, Dr. Ziad Al-Otaibi, group CEO for technical operations, also resigned. Otaibi’s resignation was preceded by Dr. Saad Bin Dhafer, Al-Qahtani Group CEO for strategic affairs.
Last month, Jameel Al-Molhem, Saudi Telecom chief executive for Saudi Arabia operations, also resigned from his post.
Al-Ghoneim was previously a consultant for the defense and aviation ministries. He also serves on the boards of many local companies. Ghoneim joined STC from Riyadh-based Al Elm Information Security Company.
The STC is the second largest telecom operator, which serves more than 160 million subscribers in 11 countries.
In January, STC reported 6.7 percent increase in revenue. The increase in revenue is attributed to the growth in Broadband (fixed and mobile), Business and wholesales services domestically and from international operations.
STC has spent billions of dollars on foreign acquisitions in the past decade, according to Reuters calculations, buying into many markets including Turkey, Indonesia, Kuwait and Bahrain. Yet it remains reliant on home, with the Kingdom providing 68 percent of revenue in 2012.
The company’s shares have fallen 5.8 percent this year, underperforming the main Saudi index, which is up 3.7 percent.