DENIS O’Brien, the owner of telecommunications giant Digicel, has taken over the role of CEO Alex Matuschka von Greiffenclau (47), who died suddenly on Thursday while holidaying with his family in Germany.

According to a report in the Irish newspaper, The Independent, O’Brien, who is also the group’s chairman, will take up the interim role until a replacement is named. The report stated that Matuschka von Greiffenclau, who took over as chief executive last February, joined Digicel from Dutch-based Telco Veon, which was previously known as Vimpelcom.

It said the German, who replaced Colm Delves as Digicel chief executive, had served as chief performance officer for Veon. O’Brien praised what he described as “the enormous contribution to the transformation of Digicel,” by Mr. Matuschka von Greiffenclau, a married father of three who had just recently celebrated his 47th birthday.

“It is with a heavy heart and much sadness that I share news of the untimely death of our Group CEO, Alex Matuschka von Greiffenclau,” said O’Brien.

The company’s owner will travel to Jamaica on January 2, 2019 to take up his role as interim chief executive. “No words can adequately express our sadness at Alex’s passing or our gratitude for having worked with him. Digicel has lost a committed, hard-working and exceptional Chief Executive. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know him on a personal level have lost a dear friend”.

The report said that Digicel won bondholder acceptance for the second element of its offer to swap debt falling due in 2020 and 2022 for longer dated facilities. This follows months of negotiations. Taken together, the exchanges allow the Jamaica-headquartered telecommunications group to push out repayments on a total of $3bn (€2.59bn) of outstanding debt. O’Brien said that over the coming days, colleagues will share their thoughts for a suitable commemoration of Mr. Matuschka von Greiffenclau.