Digicel Group Directors

Colm joined Digicel in May 2004 in the role of Group Chief Financial Officer before taking up his current role as Group Chief Executive Officer in June 2005.

When he joined the company, Digicel was active in eight markets in the Caribbean having launched its first operation in Jamaica in 2001. Since then, Colm has overseen a fourfold increase in the number of markets Digicel serves and has been instrumental in taking the Digicel brand of best value, best service and best network mobile communications across the Caribbean and Central America. With the addition of six markets in the Pacific to the portfolio, Digicel Group now spans 32 markets worldwide and is proud to serve 11 million customers worldwide.

Prior to his role in Digicel, Colm provided consultancy services to a number of companies, including O’Brien Cellular Ltd., owned by Denis O’Brien. From September 1993 to October 2003, Colm held the position of Chief Financial Officer of Hibernia Foods plc, a Nasdaq-quoted company in the food manufacturing industry.

Colm qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG Dublin and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from Dublin City University and is based with his family in Kingston, Jamaica.

Lawrence Hickey joined Digicel in December 2002 as Financial Controller for the Jamaica operation and was appointed to the role of Finance Director in August 2003.  Lawrence was formally appointed to the role of Group Chief Financial Officer effective March 1, 2006.  Lawrence is also a founding member of the Digicel Foundation.

Prior to joining Digicel, Lawrence was the Finance Manager with Esat BT, one of Irelands leading telecommunications service providers, where he was responsible for all financial management and financial reporting requirements of the Group. Lawrence also played an instrumental role in the consolidation of the company’s business and consumer divisions following the sale of the company to British Telecom.

Lawrence has gained significant experience in auditing, financial control and management, investor relations, debt management and M&A experience throughout his career with a number of successful corporates. He graduated from University of Limerick, Ireland in 1994 with a Bachelors Degree in Business Studies.  Lawrence qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG where he worked on a wide range of audits and secondments.  Post qualification, Lawrence joined Grafton Group Plc, an Irish-based publicly quoted company where he held the position of Group Management Accountant.

Lawrence is based in Kingston, Jamaica.

Kevin is Group Chief Operating Officer having joined Digicel in September 2002 as General Manager for St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines. In October 2003, Digicel Grenada was launched and Kevin managed  the three islands that became known as the OECS Islands.

After two years based in St Lucia,  Kevin moved to Barbados as CEO Eastern Caribbean. During his two years there, Antigua, Anguilla, St Kitts and Nevis and Dominica were launched and added to the Eastern Caribbean portfolio. Kevin then moved to Trinidad in September 2006 to take up the position of CEO Trinidad and Tobago - while continuing to maintain oversight of the Eastern Caribbean markets.

In his current role as Group COO, he oversees all existing operational markets and works with the market CEO’s to ensure the company’s goals are achieved.

Kevin brings with him a wealth of international telecoms and management experience having held senior roles in companies like Mercury Communications and Worldcom in the UK and ESAT Telecom in Ireland.

Kevin holds a Business Degree from the University of Limerick and is based in Kingston, Jamaica.

As Group Commercial Director, Brian is responsible for driving Digicel’s commercial objectives across its Caribbean and Central American operations, ensuring the delivery of excellent customer service and great value for customers, coupled with a pioneering brand - all of which is underpinned by aggressive revenue generation goals.

Brian has overall responsibility for commercial strategy formulation and implementation, covering marketing communications, brand development, promotions & events, public relations, sponsorship, business intelligence, pricing & research - and the development of new products and services.

Prior to this role, Brian was CEO of Digicel Central America where he oversaw Digicel’s businesses in both Honduras and Panama.

Since joining Digicel in 2005, Brian has worked in several roles including Commercial Director for Digicel Trinidad & Tobago and CEO for the newly launched markets of St Kitts & Nevis and Anguilla.

Brian has a wealth of commercial experience, having previously held senior management positions in Hewlett Packard, eircom PLC & Sigma Telecom.

Brian is based in Kingston, Jamaica.

Mario Assaad joined Digicel Group in January 2005 as Chief Technology Officer. This role aims to bring coherence in the technical and IT approach, innovative telco-grade services and solutions to the end-user and efficient applications to internal clients in turn optimizing time and costs and raising revenues. 

Mario and his team are focused on continuing to support the Digicel key style of customer experience. His responsibility is to provide across all the Digicel operations, cost efficient and customer-focused network and technology solutions that will drive the competitive advantage of our superior core product – our network. He also manages Group Carrier Services, Roaming and Product Delivery.

Mario has been in the Caribbean region for almost nine years and joined Digicel from his previous position as Technical Director for Orange in the Dominican Republic.

Prior to that, he was involved in the launch and support of GSM and fixed operators in Lebanon. Mario has a Masters in Engineering from the “Ecole Superieure Des Ingenieurs De Beyrouth”.

Mario is based in Kingston, Jamaica.

Ken Mason joined Digicel in December 2004 as Group Business Development Director. His primary objective is to identify opportunities for Digicel to continue to expand its operations across our target markets.

Ken was formerly with Pario Solutions (The Lewis Group), a major Caribbean telecom engineering solutions provider, where he served as Group Vice President - Marketing and Corporate Affairs.

Prior to Pario, he was actively involved in Caribbean/North American economic development and corporate and government consulting. Ken is a graduate of Pace University, New York where he majored in Accounting, Finance and International Business.

Ken is based in Kingston, Jamaica.

Jan Tjernell has overall responsibility for the legal and regulatory strategies for the Digicel Group. He was appointed to the position in March 2007.

Previously Jan worked with Tele2-group, the largest non-incumbent pan-European operator. He joined that organization in 1994 with his most recent position there giving him overall responsibility for legal and regulatory affairs. Prior to that he held various legal and regulatory roles within that same organization. Jan holds a Master of Law degree from the University of Stockholm.

Jan is based in Kingston, Jamaica with his family.

Pat joined Digicel in September 2006  as Group HR Director where he is responsible for driving all elements of the people agenda.

From recruitment and talent management to change and culture programs, Pat’s goal is to have each and every person in the company understanding and living the Digicel Way. This means focusing on continuing to provide great service and striving constantly to do things in a different way  to continue to contribute to the success of Digicel and it’s employees.

With over 25 years of professional human resource management experience and at least 15 of these spent in international and foreign assignments, Pat started his career as a graduate trainee with Ford Motor Company. He has subsequently held various human resources positions with Apple, Intel Corporation and most recently as Vice President Human Resources Dell EMEA Operations.

Pat is a graduate of Human Resources & Business from Limerick University, Ireland and is based in Kingston, Jamaica.