Ca­ble and Wire­less (C&W) has an­nounced the ap­point­ment of Inge Smidts to the po­si­tion of CEO ef­fec­tive Feb­ru­ary 2018.

Re­act­ing to the ap­point­ment, Smidts said, "I am ex­cit­ed to take on the role of CEO at C&W and work with the new man­age­ment team that will lead Lib­er­ty Latin Amer­i­ca in­to the fu­ture.

"The prospects for C&W are bright and I look for­ward to lever­ag­ing my ex­pe­ri­ences at Lib­er­ty Glob­al and Te­lenet to bring a com­mer­cial, mar­ket­ing and cus­tomer-fo­cus that will help de­liv­er re­sults.”

Smidts re­places John Reid who had an­nounced in ear­ly De­cem­ber that he would step down from the po­si­tion of chief ex­ec­u­tive in ear­ly 2018.

In the state­ment an­nounc­ing her ap­point­ment, C&W stat­ed that Smidts is a for­mer ex­ec­u­tive from Lib­er­ty Glob­al where she held the po­si­tion of chief mar­ket­ing of­fi­cer.

"Smidts was Se­nior Vice Pres­i­dent - Res­i­den­tial Mar­ket­ing and a mem­ber of the ex­ec­u­tive team at Te­lenet Group. While there, she was re­spon­si­ble for Go-to-Mar­ket re­port­ing and over­see­ing the com­mer­cial strat­e­gy for Te­lenet’s busi­ness."

She brings her ex­pe­ri­ence in brand mar­ket­ing and spent more than 10 years in Proc­ter and Gam­ble where she start­ed as As­sis­tant brand man­ag­er

Smidts holds a Mas­ter de­gree in Economis from UF­SIA in Antwerp and an MBA in mar­ket­ing from the IAE in Aix-en-Provence, France.

In­com­ing Pres­i­dent & CEO of Lib­er­ty Latin Amer­i­ca, Bal­an Nair said, “Inge is a proven ex­ec­u­tive that has de­liv­ered strong re­sults through­out her ca­reer. We are ex­cit­ed that she has agreed to lead C&W and join the Lib­er­ty Latin Amer­i­ca team next year, once the split from Lib­er­ty Glob­al is com­plete. I al­so want to thank John Reid for his many con­tri­bu­tions to the com­pa­ny and fa­cil­i­tat­ing a smooth tran­si­tion.”

John Reid, who re­mains as C&W’s CEO un­til 2018, "will help en­sure a seam­less lead­er­ship tran­si­tion un­til Smidts’ tenure be­gins in Feb­ru­ary 2018," the state­ment in­di­cat­ed.