Omnia appoints Seelan Gobalsamy as its new CEO

22nd August 2019 By: Simone Liedtke - Creamer Media Social Media Editor & Senior Writer

JSE-listed Omnia Holdings on Thursday announced the appointment of Seelan Gobalsamy CEO, effective immediately, after Adriaan de Lange stepped down for personal reasons.

Gobalsamy will also remain as CFO until a successor is appointed, while De Lange will remain available to Omnia in an advisory capacity.

Omnia chairperson Ralph Havenstein commented that, since joining Omnia as a nonexecutive director in 2008 and as FD at the start of this year, Gobalsamy had “been instrumental in stabilising the financial position of the company”.

Gobalsamy has assumed several senior executive roles across emerging markets for almost two decades, and previously served as CEO for emerging markets at Liberty Holdings.

Commenting on his new role, Gobalsamy said his immediate focus would be to “protect the company” and ensure the stability of its financial position.

The recent announcement of the fully underwritten rights issue by Omnia shareholders was a major step towards achieving this, he added, noting that the next step would be to go back to the basics of delivery to drive long-term value for shareholders and other stakeholders that have an interest in Omnia by balancing adequate return on capital with business risk considerations.

To further strengthen the leadership team responsible for overseeing the new strategy, the nominations committee of the board is actively engaging with nonexecutive director candidates.