CAPE TOWN - Vodacom’s Managing Executive of the Internet of Things, Deon Liebenberg is leaving the mobile communications group and will be joining a company in Australia.
The executive who served at Vodacom Executive IOT since April 2016 will now be leaving the company after serving for over two years.
He has worked for the Vodacom group early in 2001 as the Executive Head of Sales.
In 2008, he worked for Blackberry and is penned as heading up the brand within Sub Saharan Africa.
On working for Vodacom, Liebenberg says that he thoroughly enjoyed working for Vodacom. “During my time with the company, I have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to be accountable for a diverse portfolio including creating and owning our Vodafone Global Enterprise strategy across the continent; running multiple sales organisations and accelerating our Internet of Things business to be a leader across the continent”, said Liebenberg.
He says that Vodacom has led various first to market initiatives in Africa.
This is evident by Vodacom who was the first South African and one of the first African mobile network operators to announce the commercial availability of its Narrow Band Internet of Things network (NB-IoT) in 2017. Vodacom also recently won Frost & Sullivan's 2018 African Technology Innovation award for our NB-IoT deployment, added Liebenberg.
Liebenberg who will officially be leaving Vodacom in June this year will be joining a company in Australia. Although he did not reveal much about his new position, he did say that that part of his reason for leaving the Vodacom group is in order for him to learn the ins and outs of a brand new market and the opportunity for further growth and development. He said that his decision is also personally driven.
“On a personal level, my family and I love to travel and will welcome the chance to live in a new environment and learn about a different culture and way of life”, said Liebenberg.
Liebenberg who has extensive experience in the mobile communications sector said that his professional journey over the past few years and working for some of the best global brands have had a major impact in driving his success.
“To remain relevant as a technology professional, I believe that one has to consistently invest in oneself in order to stay ahead of the curve. I’m excited to keep building and remain hungry for new challenges and opportunities”, said Liebenberg.
When asked how IOT will transform businesses, Liebenberg said that Vodafone’s 2017 IoT Barometer research revealed that South African businesses are increasingly seeing IoT as being strategically important to them and are confident that it will improve their business outcomes. “IoT has big potential for South Africa when it comes to addressing some of the country’s unique socio-economic challenges. An example of this is M-Health, an area where we are seeing IoT driven technologies being used such as the Vodacom Stock Visibility Solution. This solution monitors drug stock levels in clinics and send out automated alerts to ensure that stock-outs are minimised”, said Liebenberg.