Daniel Hajj Aboumrad: Outstanding Telco CEO

We’ve heard about Jack Welch of GE and so many other outstanding CEOs. Due to a popular global media most of the good CEOs we have heard about come from the U.S. or Europe. Yet there are equally impressive CEOs out there who come from other parts of the world. One of the standouts is Daniel Hajj Aboumrad from Mexico. He’s name me not ring a bell to many but he’s company has scores of clients and yes it has to do with ringing, the ringing of a mobile phone.

Daniel was born in 1966 and has an MBA from the Universidad Anáhuac. He worked in top positions in the Carso Group from 1987 to 1998. In 1997 he became the CEO of Telcel and became the CEO of América Móvil in 2000.

América Móvil is the fourth largest mobile network operator in term of equity subscribers in the world. It is also one of the largest companies in the world and has headquarters in Mexico City. Telcel is a subsidiary of América Móvil and is the largest mobile operator in Mexico.
Daniel masterminded the firm’s license acquisitions and helped expand into South America creating today the world’s fourth largest mobile operator. He has focused underserved countries in Latin America with low penetration rates and high potential and made heavy investments to provide reliable services.

Competitions in some Latin American countries were bought out. Daniel also looked to lower income customers as his main target. He offered subsidized handsets and bought small startups where the company had no presence. Over 170 million new subscribers were brought in.

The financial market certainly approve of his and the company’s performance. In 2012 América Móvil sold $ 2 billion bonds in 10- and 30-year maturities. The bonds were given provisional ratings of A2 from Moody’s Investors Service, A-minus from Standard & Poor, and A from Fitch Ratings. This reflected some of the highest ratings on a pure corporate bond in Latin America.

América Móvil also has subsidiaries in the U.S. and Europe. The company with revenues of $59.3 billion in 2012 continues to grow and leading the charge is Daniel Hajj Aboumrad.