South African fixed line telecom firm Telkom has appointed Len de Villiers as the company's new chief information officer (CIO) as of 1 November 2013.

De Villiers' appointment is in line with the company’s updated leadership structure that seeks to help drive the turnaround of Telkom, reveals a statement.

De Villiers’ CIO’s experience spans 25 years and he is considered to be one of the top CIOs in the country. In 2009, he was voted “the most admired CIO in South Africa” by the CIO Council of South Africa.

De Villiers’ other IT managerial posts were at BP, Metro Cash and Carry and Gencor.

He also spent some time in the financial industry having held top positions at two main South African banks.

In 2003 he was the managing director of Nedbank’s group operations and was managing director of Nedbank’s group technology and support services in 2004.

He further joined Absa Bank as group CIO in 2008 where he was responsible for articulating the technology plans and initiatives necessary to create and support the underlying technology required for their “One Absa” strategy.

Speaking about the appointment, Telkom group chief executive officer, Sipho Maseko said, “The process of building a winning team is gaining momentum and I am confident that we will soon have a capable and dedicated team in place to lead Telkom’s turnaround."

Maseko added, “As we continue to move forward with Telkom’s transformation to improve our operational efficiencies, maximise the returns made possible by the evolution of our network and pursue the convergence agenda, we rely heavily on IT architecture and systems that are of a world class standard. At the same time we have to strengthen our focus on innovation and Research and Development.”