SAIEE honours MTN's Karel Pienaar

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2 February 2011 News

Karel Pienaar, managing director of MTN SA, received the highest honour, the SAIEE President’s Award, at the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers’ (SAIEE) annual banquet, which took place at The Wanderer’s Club in Johannesburg recently.

Karel Pienaar, MD of MTN SA

The SAIEE President’s Award is the institute’s premier annual award that recognises current major contributions in any sector of electrical, electronic, telecommunications and computer engineering. The award is not intended to recognise long or distinguished service, but current major engineering contributions. In the institute’s citation, it stated that Karel Pienaar is a worthy recipient of the SAIEE President’s Award for his significant contribution to the communications networks in South Africa and, indeed, across the continent of Africa.

Prior to becoming MD of MTN SA in August 2009, Pienaar was the chief technology and information officer of MTN Group, a position he held since January 2005. In 2001, following the awarding of a licence to MTN in Nigeria, he took up the position of CEO of MTN Nigeria for a year to oversee the operation’s startup business in that country, and was instrumental in creating the successful business that exists today.

Before his long association with the MTN Group, Pienaar joined the South African pay television company M-Net in 1988 as strategic business development manager. There he developed new businesses and services for the company including business TV, data broadcast services and corporate satellite TV services. Prior to joining M-Net, he started up and managed the communications division of Cortech, a computer and communications equipment supply and support company, which provided data communication products and services to South African corporates.

Karel holds a BSc Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Johannesburg (previously Rand Afrikaans University) and is a registered Professional Engineer. He was also nominated for the Global CEO of the Year Award in the 2010 World Communication Awards.

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SAIEE honours MTN's Karel Pienaar

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