Selected Work · 1996–2003

Internet Africa to UUNET SA

The period when the enthusiasm of youth became a major business, with rapid growth in South Africa, expansion across Africa, and a leadership team learning how to scale an organisation at speed.

OrganisationInternet Africa, UUNET SAFocusProduct, commercial strategy, Africa

The experience

Growing up professionally while the business was growing up around us.

UUNET Africa was a formative period. The leadership team was still young, the average age of the wider organisation was young, and the business was expanding at a remarkable pace.

There was a particular energy to that combination. People were learning quickly, taking on responsibilities that were growing faster than the organisation could formalise them, and helping build a business that was moving from the early Internet market into a substantial corporate operation.

For me, this was the point where hands on network engineering developed into product development, business development, commercial thinking and leadership across several African markets.

Documented work

Moving beyond the network into product and commercial leadership.

The formal career record describes progression into Senior Executive Manager for Product and Business Development and then Director for Africa, with responsibility extending across Kenya, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and SDN Mauritius.

A major part of the work was creating formal product development and product management functions, while network functions were handed over to specialist teams.

Product developmentBusiness developmentCommercial modellingAfrica

Commercial discipline

Turning network economics into products and decisions.

The work included detailed costing and pricing models, as well as models for network utilisation and amortisation. These supported forecasting, budgeting, procurement of capacity and hardware, and product pricing.

The original account records that these models continued to be used after this period, including through to departure in 2014.

Expansion across Africa

Growth was not only about scale in South Africa.

The period included expansion into multiple African markets and participation in technology due diligence associated with acquisitions, including Africa Online.

That combination of operating experience, commercial analysis and African market exposure provided a bridge into the global telecommunications environment that followed.

Career archive

The longer first person account remains part of the story.

Read the original article for the detailed chronology and technical history of the Internet Africa and UUNET period.

Read the article →

Building the Commercial Internet →