Liberty Latin America (LiLA) said Monday that it has restructured its executive team, removing the role of chief operating officer, allowing leaders of its individual units -- Cable & Wireless, VTR and Liberty Puerto Rico -- to report directly to company CEO Balan Nair. In addition, LiLA said it has added two new positions to the executive team -- SVP, south central markets and chief customer officer.
“Last year, we learned so much about ourselves and our business, and we have been evaluating how we operate, how we are structured, how we delight our customers, and how we continue to evolve in a changing environment,” Nair said in a press release. “Our new structure will bring an even greater focus on our customers, provide fresh perspectives in different areas of the business, and importantly, give our leaders the opportunity for growth.”
Liberty Latin America was spun off from Liberty Global in 2018. The company operates in more than 20 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean under brands such as VTR, Flow, Liberty, Más Móvil, BTC, UTS and Cabletica.
Nair added that Liberty Latin America is actively recruiting a chief customer officer who will align the company’s customer focused initiatives and lead its existing digital, customer care, and programming teams.”
Guillermo Ponce, previously CEO of VTR, the company’s Chilean operation, has been named SVP, south-central markets, covering Liberty Latin America’s Panama and Costa Rica operations. Ponce has more than 25 years experience in the telecommunications industry. Taking over as general manager of VTR will be LiLA chief technology officer Vivek Khemka, who will relocate from LiLA headquarters in Denver to VTR HQ in Santiago, Chile. He joined Liberty Latin America in 2018. As part of that change, LiLA said it also is searching for a new CTO. In the interim, chief information officer Christine Weber will assume day-to-day CTO responsibilities.
Former LiLA chief operating officer Betzalel Kenigsztein has been named executive director and general manager of Cable & Wireless Panama, replacing Julio Spiegel. Spiegel will take a new role within Liberty Latin America as VP, government affairs reporting to the general counsel.
