MultiChoice Africa CEO Nico Meyer has left the pay-television operator for “personal reasons”. He left the group’s employ on 31 March, MultiChoice GM for corporate affairs Jackie Rakitla confirmed on Monday.

He has been replaced by Tim Jacobs, formerly the chief financial officer of the pay-TV segment at MultiChoice.

Jacobs took on the Africa CEO role effective 1 April, Rakitla said in response to a query from TechCentral.

Jacobs is a former chief operations officer at SA Taxi and group chief financial officer at Transaction Capital. Between 2001 and 2009, he served as group finance chief at Nampak. He joined MultiChoice in 2013 as chief financial officer of MultiChoice South Africa Holdings.

A qualified chartered accountant, he was then appointed director of finance for MultiChoice South Africa Holdings and joined the MultiChoice South Africa board in April 2014.

Meyer, who describes himself as a “CEO on sabbatical” on his LinkedIn profile, had worked at MultiChoice since 1998.

He had started as a group management accountant at parent company MIH, before becoming group chief financial officer of MultiChoice in 2004.

He was appointed as CEO of MultiChoice Africa in February 2012.

On Meyer’s watch, MultiChoice has greatly expanded its reach in Africa, including through the launch of digital terrestrial television services in a number of key markets.