Alex Masu, Head of Africa and Middle East: Network Investments, Meta
Alex Masu heads up the Africa and Middle East Network Investments team for Meta, which is responsible for driving infrastructure investment for subsea cables, terrestrial fibre and the enablement of carrier-neutral colocation sites. This team is currently responsible for executing the 2Africa cable system, which is currently the most extensive subsea fibre optic cable system in the world - connecting Africa, Europe and the Middle East with 46 landings in 33 countries.
He was previously an Executive Head of Mergers and Acquisitions at the Vodacom Group, where he led the corporate finance and capital raise efforts for the Global Partnership Ethiopia consortium bid (including Safaricom, Vodacom, Vodafone, Sumitomo and CDC) for a new telco licence in Ethiopia. Amongst other deals, he was also responsible for acquiring Vodafone’s current global IoT platform.
Alex earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Cape Town. He started his career as a mechanical engineer - designing petrochemical and nuclear plants - before making a career shift into strategy consulting and, subsequently, mergers and acquisitions within investment banking, working at Barclays and Standard Chartered. He has worked on numerous transactions across many countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, focusing specifically on financial institutions and telecommunications. In total, Alex has executed more than R100bn in transaction value. In addition, he is a co-founder of an education technology software platform called Lightbulb, the primary Edtech platform for the third largest telecommunications company in South Africa.
Alex’s passion for technology started when he taught himself to code at age 12. In his free time, he enjoys travelling and photography. You will typically find him behind his camera lens, capturing wildlife and interesting sites which have been featured in various publications.
Alex resides in Johannesburg with his wife.