The ManicaPost
Abel Zhakata: Senior Reporter
ZOL chief executive officer — Mr Denny Marandure will be the guest of honour at this year’s Mutare Boys’ High Speech and Prize Giving Ceremony to be held at the school today (Friday).MBHS headmaster, Mr Tendayi Gwashu, revealed this week that the school chose to invite Mr Marandure to lead proceedings at the ceremony because he is a successful former student who will inspire the current crop of pupils at the institution.
He said the ZOL boss has been around the world and, thus, with his flowery academic achievements and outstanding international work experience, Mr Marandure is a good role model to pupils, some of whom are about to write their national examinations.
“We chose to have him here and talk to our students because he was once part of this institution. ‘‘We need him to tell our students how he has made it from here and give them courage and confidence that they can also do it because he did it in a big way. We are proud of him and we believe that he can help us shape our current crop of students by giving them a word of advice,” he said.
Brief profile
Mr Marandure spent extensive years in the USA providing value to large international, global and dynamic Fortune 500 companies. Mr Marandure has always worked hard throughout his life to get to where he is today, as the chief executive of the fastest growing ISP in Zimbabwe, ZOL Zimbabwe.
Beginning his education at University of Zimbabwe, Mr Marandure graduated with a Bachelor of Business Studies degree. In his pursuit of a successful career, he went on to graduate with an MBA in Finance from Washington D.C.
Mr Marandure spent 12 years at Verizon Communication LLC in the United States of America. Verizon is one of the largest communication technology companies in the world, which operates America’s largest 4G LTE wireless network and the nation’s première all-fibre broadband network.
He worked his way through many analytical, upper-level management and executive positions at companies like IBM USA, IBM South Africa, Lucent Technologies, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Mr Marandure is an avid golfer and has a variety of hobbies of activities that he likes to partake in, however, these skills and talents are nothing compared to his skills in the business arena.
Under his tenure, ZOL has received the following awards:
2015 CCAZ Service Excellence Award under the ISP and IAP sector
2015 MAZ Superbrand Jingle of the Year runner-up
2015 Zimbabwe IT Achievers Top ICT Company of the Year runner-up,
2016 ZNCC National ICT Company of the Year runner-up
2016 ZNCC Mashonaland Annual Business Awards ICT Company of the Year runner-up
As a testament to his efforts, Mr Marandure received the following awards:
2015 Customer Service Executive of the year in the ISP and IAP category, — Contact Centre Association of Zimbabwe (CCAZ)
2015 Marketing Oriented CEO of the Year Award, MAZ Superbrand
2015 Top ICT Business Person of the Year — Ministry of ICT
In a recent interview with our sister paper, The Herald, Mr Marundure said the country could be better off if skilled personnel who are working in the Diaspora come back home and share their international skills and experiences.
“We do have a lot of educated Zimbabweans who are scattered all over the world and are heading very big organisations.
‘‘Imagine the difference they will make in different sectors if they were to return home with whatever expertise they have gained and feed it into our economy,” he said.
Under his leadership ZOL has become a market leader. It has become one of the leading Internet service providers in the country and now has 130 ZOL spots nationwide and is also providing Internet connectivity to schools in urban areas with plans to expand the same services to the rural areas.
Mr Marandure believes that new information technologies will lead economic growth in Zimbabwe.
“Internet use is the biggest economic driver anywhere in the world. As a country, you cannot attract any investment if Internet connectivity is low or non-existent, because investors would need to be in constant touch with the rest of the world to remain viable. We cannot undermine Internet usage, or we risk being left out by other nations,” he said.
