Kyle Whitehill, CEO of Vodafone Qatar, has recently been named in the TOP CEO Awards and the leading CEO of the Telecom industry across the Arab Gulf region.
Organised by business publication TRENDS magazine in conjunction with INSEAD business school, the TOP CEO Awards 2015 ceremony paid tribute to business leaders whose success for their organisations is an instrumental factor in the continued growth of the region.
The fifth instalment of the annual programme, TOP CEO 2015 honoured business heads judged to have excelled in the field of leadership. Mediaquest, the media company behind the initiative, says that the scheme is the most credible of its kind in the region, as only leaders of the firms listed on the stock exchanges of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman are eligible for ranking.
Kyle Whitehill, Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Qatar, said: “To me, the fundamental job of a CEO is not just to help your team create a vision, strategy and a plan – it is to engage, inspire, and motivate people across the organization. There can be no TOP CEO without a TOP team backing him or her each day. I therefore accept the honour of being in the TOP CEO Awards on behalf of Vodafone Qatar’s talented and tireless team, without whom we would have never reached this stage. From telecommunications to banking and air travel, I am additionally proud to stand among a group of such distinguished global business leaders who are indeed shaking up their industries and shifting the centre of gravity toward this region as partners – not passengers – on its remarkable economic journey.”
“About 5 years ago, we were extremely honoured to be invited to bid for the second mobile license by H.H. Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser and consequently we were able to localise one of the world’s biggest and most valuable telecom brands and privileged to be partnered with Qatar Foundation. There isn’t a single global brand in Qatar which has localised itself as much as we did and we were the first and only global brand to list on the Qatar Exchange. This was a solid testament to our steadfast commitment to Qatar, bringing a wealth of local knowledge and experience together with our global credentials and track record.” Whitehill added.
“With Vodafone Qatar sitting at the heart of the largest mobile networks in the world, we were confident that our presence in the local market will help to change the competitive landscape, introduce world-class innovations and raise the bar of the industry; and that’s exactly what we did and we keep on doing as we aim to empower every single one of our customers to be confidently connected by providing unique, worry-free experiences.” continued Whitehill.
Vodafone Qatar switched on its mobile network on 1 March 2009 and shortly after started delivering great value to its customers with a range of exciting products and services.
Its cutting-edge networks infrastructure is the first green field networks project in Vodafone Group in the past 15 years. This places the company in a great position to develop, in the future, one of the world’s only converged networks.
Vodafone launched its fibre-based consumer and enterprise fixed-line services commercially in October 2012.
Whitehill concluded: “We are strongly committed to providing world class telecommunications infrastructure to support the Qatar National Vision 2030 and live up to the promise we made to The State of Qatar, its people and all of our stakeholders.”
Before joining Vodafone Qatar, Kyle Whitehill was the Chief Executive Officer for Vodafone Ghana from June 2010 to June 2013. Under his leadership, Vodafone Ghana became the second largest telecom operator in Ghana and grew the subscriber base from 2 million to over 5 million.
Prior to that, Kyle joined Vodafone UK in 2001 as head of the Enterprise business. In February 2008 he moved to Vodafone India as Chief Operating Officer. During his tenure as Chief Operating Officer, the subscriber base of Vodafone India’s business grew from 47 million to over 100 million. His early career was spent in fast moving consumer goods with L’Oreal and Jeyes before he entered general management with the Soft Drinks division of PepsiCo.
Kyle was educated in Scotland and has a degree in marketing and economics. Kyle is a keen golfer and supporter of Glasgow Rangers football club and is married with 3 teenage sons.
