Stephen has agreed to extend his initial five-year contract for another six months and has requested that no further extensions be considered until 31 March 2024, when he would officially retire from the board.
This month, EOH published its annual results for year-end 31 July 2023, reporting a continued improvement in performance with a 35 percent increase in operating profit from continuing operations. In the same report, the group announced that its current CEO, Stephen van Coller, will be stepping down as the group’s CEO and that Stephen has requested that his current five year contract not be extended beyond 31 March 2024.
“It has been quite a journey and not what I expected when I accepted the CEO role in 2018. Nevertheless I am immensely proud of what we have achieved as a team. EOH today is a sustainable company that lies at the heart of South Africa’s ICT ecosystem and plays an important role in everyone’s lives. It has great potential both locally and internationally, and now is an appropriate time to hand over to new leadership to guide the company through this next chapter,” Stephen said.
Stephen will, however, remain available to the board after 31 March, as required, to help with a smooth leadership transition and to complete any projects that require his continued involvement.
According to EOH board chairman Andrew Mthembu, the successful rights offer has allowed the EOH board the opportunity to contemplate the group’s next chapter, in addition to significantly correcting EOH’s financial structure.
Andrew expressed his gratitude to both Stephen and Megan Pydigadu (who recently resigned as EOH’s CFO) for their leadership, which has resulted in a sustainable, growing business.
“As EOH has changed its strategic focus and significantly decentralised its head office functions over the past year the board has the necessary time to undertake a thorough skills assessment as part of the recruitment of a new CEO and CFO. Importantly to ensure business continuity the board has signed four-year contracts with the heads of the respective operational businesses, namely Marius De Larey, Brian Harding and Fatima Newman,” Andrew added.
