Chris Wood selected as one of the 100 most powerful people in global telecoms

Chris Wood, CEO of Africa’s carriers’ carrier WIOCC, has today (30th) been named one of the 100 most powerful people in the global telecommunications industry.

In this year’s GTB Power 100 listing, Chris climbed the rankings to #62 – up from #65 last year and #79 in 2012. He is one of only four1 executives from African businesses included within this Global Telecoms Business magazine-compiled list, which names the 100 most powerful people in the global telecommunications industry.

Earlier this year, Chris brought the first and only direct submarine cable connectivity to the 10 million inhabitants of Somalia, masterminding the landing of the EASSy cable in Mogadishu after six years of hard work in the face of the most difficult conditions possible with piracy, shore-based unrest etc.

He has continued to expand Africa’s carriers’ carrier in line with its rapidly-growing customer base, again delivering significant year-on-year financial growth: in the past 12 months, WIOCC’s revenues increased by 40% and profits rose by more than 100%. Meanwhile, further investments were made in WIOCC’s core network, staff numbers increased by 40% and WIOCC’s Nairobi-based Network Operations Centre doubled in size. Chris was named Industry Personality of the Year Award at the 6th Annual AfricaCom Awards in Cape Town, in November 2013.

Chris has led WIOCC since start-up, building it from an unknown fledgling organisation that sold capacity on EASSy (the East Africa Submarine Cable System), into the leading wholesaler of high-speed, international bandwidth for Africa. WIOCC currently seamlessly links more than 55,000km of terrestrial fibre to 40,000km of submarine fibre-optic cable, offering carriers affordable, reliable connectivity to over 500 locations across 30 African countries and more than 700 cities in 70 countries globally.