In a statement the company said that Kurgan and the Board of Directors had “come to the mutual conclusion to end their collaboration”, with no further details on Kurgan’s decision to depart.
In addition to the appointment of Gatta as the new CEO Joseph Burton, former CEO of Poly, has been appointed as new CEO of TeleSign.
The company’s shareholders including Proximus, MTN and Swisscom, said that it “want(s) to explicitly thank Daniel Kurgan for his passion and dedication as CEO for almost 14 years, driving the company’s strategic transformation to become a leading international communications enabler, and wish him all the best in his future endeavours”.
Currently director network strategy, innovation & partnerships at Proximus, Gatta, in his new role as CEO, will accelerate BICS’ growth and diversification strategy by developing the position in digital communications, cloud services, mobility and IoT, as well as wholesale carrier services. He will report directly to the company’s board of directors, chaired by Guillaume Boutin.
Gatta (pictured) joined the carrier division of the Proximus Group in 2002 having held various product management positions in Italy and in the UK, in the areas of mobile and internet access services and software development.
Over this time, he has acquired group-wide expertise experience at both BICS and Proximus as well as CEO of Scarlet from 2008-2011). Over the last years, he has helped to steer Proximus’ long-term technological and business strategy, innovation and partnerships, and in particular its 5G and fibre strategy.
In addition, Gatta was already a board member of BICS, but also of Proximus Luxembourg and Tessares, as well as founding director of LoRa Alliance (IoT).
Burton also assumes his role as the new CEO of TeleSign with immediate effect. As the US-based subsidiary of BICS, TeleSign offers programmable communications and digital identity services.
In his role, Burton will further develop TeleSign’s position in programmable communications and digital identity solutions. Like Gatta, he will report directly to Guillaume Boutin who will assume the role of chairman of the board of TeleSign.
Burton previously served as CEO of Plantronics (now Poly) from 2016 to 2020, after joining the company in 2011 as chief technical officer, and then chief commercial officer. He started his career at Cisco in 2001 and served as vice president and chief technology officer of unified communications from 2007 to 2010.
Additionally, he currently operates as senior advisor to the management consulting company McKinsey.
