Wateen Announces its New CEO

Wateen-Log

Wateen today announced that Rizwan Tiwana has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the company.

Decision was taken by the board and company has officially confirmed us the development.

Rizwan Tiwana, who has replaced Naeem Zamindar, is not new for Wateen as he has remained Chief Technical Officer of the company since its inception in Pakistan till 2009.

Mr. Rizwan, during his tenure from 2005 to 2009, was responsible for launching world’s largest WiMAX network spanning in 16 cities countrywide. As CTO of Wateen, Mr. Tiwana was the man behind the launch of Long Haul Bandwidth and Dark Fiber services for the company.

Alongside his role in setting Wateen up, Mr. Tiwana brings along over 19 years of diverse experience in telecoms industry including leading large scale operators and global network vendors from different parts of the world.

His management roles for operators include his recent role as CTO at Fanoos Telecom Iraq for the last fifteen months. Previously he was also engaged in senior management roles by Nokia Siemens Network and Motorola in UAE for more than three years.

Rizwan also worked with Marconi UAE contributing to their success in innovative triple play projects.

Mr. Tiwana holds a Master’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia. He is also a BE, Electrical Engineering, from UET Lahore.

Rizwan Tiwana is given the headship of Wateen Telecom at a time when company is shifting its focus towards corporate solutions. Company’s WiMAX network has been shut down in various parts of the country while rest of the operations are being consolidated with Qubee  — pending regulatory approval — to end its consumer segment altogether.

Board of Wateen Telecom has said that it is confident that Rizwan will lead the organization in the right direction and will enable Wateen to become the preferred connectivity and services provider in Pakistan.

Tech and telecom reporter for over 15 years


  • Another Tariq Malik cast-off and we all know how Tariq Malik ran (read “bleed”) Wateen. Not sure why the organizations keep going after spent bullets (chaley huway kartoos). No corporate operations, strategy, product or sales & marketing background —- essentially, has never managed a P&L. A pure techie who has to now lead a cross-functional organization for the first time in his life and reverse the loss of PKR 18 Billion from last year. Naeem is a good guy who never should have been a CEO in the first place and neither should Mr. Tiwana. I will give him 18 months.

    • There is a big question mark on “Technical skills” of Mr. Tiwana and his ex-technical team (still part of Wateen). Failure of WiMAX wasn’t a technology failure, it was rather due to poor RF planning and using GSM cell sites for service delivery, which basically caused WiMAX to fail. Spending Million on $’s on WiMAX core network and saving few Hundred thousand $’s on building a customized tower infrastructure for better accessibility to customers is a proof of his technical skills & expertise.

      • Agreed….. WiMAX failed due to the bullshit which Tiwana named as RF planning.. It was pathetically planned. I feel sorry for Wateen.

        • it is good to see that atleast the people at wateen are responsible enough to uncover the corruption possibilities. they are not goons like many other big companies whose senior people let their CEOs enjoy corruption and in return they also enjoy loot mar. ICT R&D is a big example

  • “…….was responsible for launching world’s largest WiMAX network spanning in 16 cities countrywide.” Bull shit, The problem with Pakistanis is that they simply assume worlds largest in every aspect. Yes, Pakistan has largest terrorists net works in the world. Even this honor is being lost to Arabs in Iraq & Syria. Before writing such comments we must realize where we stand in world’s even underdeveloped countries. Forget developed world like US, Canada & EU, not forget rising economies like BRIC, Indonesia, Malaysia , etc. etc. Please do not refer to “world” here. The article otherwise very informative. But failure in a segment is questionable for the firm and they must have injected new blood.

    • When Wateen launched Wimax, it was one of the first in World. It was also mentioned on Motorola website who were Wateen’s technology partners at the time.
      So please check your facts.

  • It is fine to listen about the appointment of Rizwan Tiwana as new Chief Executive Officer of Wateen. I have read, he was Chief Technical Officer, before taking charge as CEO. To my view, this is a NEW challenge for Mr. Tiwana,because as CEO he has to look after the interests of the employees and the level of Wateen services to its consumers. To sack an employee is not a good administrative solution.To my general information, to many employees were sacked. How ever, this is matter pertaining to the organisation. Wateen should disengage itself from Qubee and move to a right direction to enable Wateen to become the most preferred connectivity and the services provider in Pakistan. I am associated with Wateen since 2008- Username: asgharkhalid and Package: 2 MB Unlimited.Regards. Khalid Asghar, former Controller/ Station Director, Radio Pakistan, (Lahore. 27 July 2014)

  • This makes me smile … “Electrical and Electronics Engineering” from King Fahd University of “Petroleum & Minerals”

  • Wateen doomed again…

    It is Mr. Tiwana who was responsible for failure of Wateen WiMAX, since the network was very poorly planned & need not mention, it was first & largest countrywide roll-out. So its failure gave major blow to this technology.

    It was Mr. Tiwana who made agreements with Motorola, worth millions of dollars for O&M & support of WiMAX network, instead of asking them to train wateen own staff. These agreements used to drain all the investments.

    It was Mr. Tiwana who hired leeches like Waqas Allauddin & Imtiaz Leghari in VSAT teams who later proved to be legends of corruption.

    It was Mr. Tiwana who made agreements with Motorola worth millions of dollar for out sourcing Core operations.. WHYYYY????????????????? Why motorola was asked to provide O&M for CISCO equipment while Wateen itself had many CCIEs in its staff?????????? A big question mark in fact.

    Then, it was Mr. Tiwana who spent billions of rupees as RoW & Civil work for laying out one of the largest longhaul fiber network but then laid fiber to save a few bucks & now there is now way to upgrade the longhaul cable except to lay an entirely new network.

    And lastly, it was MR. Tiwana who spent millions & millions of Rupees in buying DSL equipment which was never deployed & might still be present unused in old store houses.

  • What a good choice…I am sure he will do a turn around. Naeem has taken bold steps as well and lets give him credit. Hoping that Rizwan will take Wateen to new heights, leverage it core asset and strength to create new products that should drive the connectivity solution in Pakistan..maybe look into hosted cloud solution…with free connectivity ;)

    MFarid

  • The main problem with wateen is always heavy focus on technical matters rather than business side…I realized this as part of the team even with Rizwan…..
    Now once again the company is going in the same direction…I never trust on this person integrity…..He was used to assign millions of of dollar support contacts to motorolla for such a small network in comparian to other large networks being operated within much lower cost. And later he joined the same vendor motorolla as an employee.
    I can just pray for shaikhs sitting in middle east and nominating such lack of business competence guys…..this time the company must be declared bankrupt within an year…
    Are there not much competent people in the market? And company still want to try fired bukkets……:) I beleive this is due to same old well known culture of friends and family….

  • Lolzz check the height of craziness “”Tiwana….Electrical and Electronics Engineering” from King Fahd University of “Petroleum & Minerals” and he became CEO of telecom company…what the bulshit ! Wateen management is not less then from Nuts

    • Can you share your credentials Masood sb? its easier to criticise. Give the man a break and lats see wjat he does

  • I have worked wiih Tiwana and know very well how he damaged wateen as CTO. when the PAT of the sites failed he would call his team and tell them approve or i ll fire u guys. he earned millions from motorola and the became their employee. Wateen wimax went down the drain because of him and he will doom the rest of wateen as CEO. His incompetent cronies are still and wateen so a new era of loot mar will begin. Kudos Jauhar u have found a new ally in ur chor bazari.


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