Emcom Wireless is pleased to announce the appointment of Tony Sipho Sibanda to the Emcom Wireless board. Sibanda, who joined Emcom a year ago, will fulfil the role of Executive Director responsible for business development.
"The (Emcom Wireless) board is thrilled to embrace Tony's practical approach to true customer empowerment. Bespoke mission critical radio communications solutions require collaborative partnerships inclusive of users, product manufacturers, vendors and integrators, and Tony has very successfully demonstrated the ability to strategically consolidate role players for the benefit of all. Tony has brought a disruptive, new market mindset to the business as well as a new value network," says George Spencer, MD and CEO of Emcom Wireless, after the appointment was announced in Durban.
Thirty-nine-year-old Sibanda was educated in Zimbabwe during the apartheid era. After his Catholic-based education, he served his articles of clerkship with one of the big five accounting firms while studying through Unisa, before returning to South Africa in the late 90s.
From a bookkeeper position in the adventure tourism industry, Sibanda quickly moved to the petrochemical industry, where he worked in various roles within Finance. He was responsible for the operational and financial structuring of various black economic empowerment deals, conceptualising and building operational systems for manufacturing and retail operations including the modernisation, development and migration management of IT systems.
After this stint in the petrochemical industry, Sibanda joined IT service provider T-Systems as a financial controller in the transition and transformation team. His T-Systems responsibility included financial governance in the acquisition of Arivia.com, a pivotal role involving the implementation and co-ordination of financial diligence across various projects, interfacing with multi-disciplined staff at multiple levels across the organisation, ensuring conflict and interruption free service delivery, and 'business-as-usual' at all customer sites, while maintaining profitability through the transition and transformation of the two organisations.
Sibanda later served as the chief financial officer of the pioneer online recruitment firm, P-Net, where the majority shareholder recognised his contribution to group strategy with an award for innovation in Dublin Ireland. Concepts developed and implemented by Sibanda, using technology, remain the benchmark for effective online recruitment operations worldwide.
Prior to joining Emcom, Sibanda held the position of Financial Director at the largest privately owned African and global peacekeeping and defence company, the Paramount Group, a shareholder of Emcom. Sibanda's responsibility included strategic input to the financial growth and stability of the business, including ensuring the profitable implementation of key defence contracts across a number of countries, streamlining operational systems and processes as well as instilling a culture of accountability at all levels within the organisation.
Sibanda is a valued member of the Advisory Board of the UJ School of Electrical Engineering, where he plays an active role in shaping the careers of young professionals through reviewing the academic relevance and content of course modules for the faculty.
Sibanda was one of the founding trustees of the South African Maritime, Defence and Aerospace Education and Development Foundation, and served for 10 years as a reservist in the SA Police Service, Sandton Visible Policing and Crime Prevention Units, physically participating in many crime combating operations. "The opportunity to have trained, served and enforced the law alongside some of the best and most dedicated officers on the street today was an invaluable experience. It taught me a lot about adding value in some of the most complex situations using often limited resources," Sibanda said.
"Emcom has given me the opportunity to use my skills and love for technology in a practical way, and be a key contributory player in the professional, mission-critical radio communications industry," he added.
"My vision is to apply the Emcom considerable resource base, skills, experience and key partnerships to solve some of the challenges that exist in the delivery of basic services in our country and across our beautiful African continent," said Sibanda.
"After spending more than a year working with the Emcom team, and as the Emcom track record shows, Emcom clearly understands mission-critical radio communications in the African market. Emcom has embraced cutting-edge technology for many years, knows and understands how to technically support it and, best of all, is committed to true empowerment and skills transfer. This presents an enormous opportunity for emerging entrepreneurs to be part of and key drivers for positive change on our continent. I'm thrilled to be part of this era where the younger generation is driving change on the continent," Sibanda concluded.
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