NEW KEY APPOINTMENTS AT TM

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Ahmad Azhar Yahya as the new Chief Executive Officer of VADS Berhad (VADS) effective 1 January 2012.

This appointment will relinquish Ahmad’s role as Chief Strategy Officer of TM and it will allow Ghazali Omar, Executive Vice President, TM Enterprise, and Ahmad’s predecessor at VADS, to have more capacity and focus to pursue key and long term business opportunities in serving the total communications needs of the large enterprises operating in Malaysia.
Ahmad Azhar, 46, holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Oklahoma State University. He began his career in 1987 as an Engineer in Agilent Technologies (formerly known as Hewlett Packard). He then joined management consultants, Accenture in 1990 servicing a portfolio of clients in Malaysia, Asia and the Middle East in various industries from communications to high technology, oil and gas and the public sector. His experience includes strategic planning and change management, business and operations support systems, enterprise resource management, revenue and customer relationship management. He became a Partner at Accenture in 2000 before joining TM as Group Chief Information Officer on 2 August 2004. In 2008, Ahmad was appointed the Programme Director of the High-Speed Broadband Programme and contributed to the successful launch of UniFi in March 2010. He was appointed TM’s Chief Strategy Officer on 15 July 2010.

Commenting on Ahmad’s appointment, Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Group Chief Executive Officer, TM said, “We are excited about this new management change in the next phase in our transformation journey. TM aspires to evolve from a Voice Exchange to become an Information Exchange, and key to this is making TM the ICT/ Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) powerhouse for Malaysia. Ahmad’s experience, knowledge and skills as well as his previous role as TM’s Chief Strategy Officer, is well suited to steer VADS to the next level of ICT prominence. I would also like to express our utmost gratitude to Ghazali for his outstanding leadership in bringing both TM Enterprise and VADS to where they are today which has enabled this next phase of transformation to happen.”

“In the Enterprise and Government segments, we have seen new business opportunities opening up in ICT and BPO services where demand for these services has increased significantly over the past few years. TM Enterprise and VADS are our flag-bearers in the ICT/ BPO arena. Moving forward, TM is giving both teams the strong focus, empowerment and leadership they need to aggressively compete and together make TM the ICT/ BPO Champion as we envision,” added Dato’ Sri Zam.

With Ahmad Azhar assuming his role as the CEO of VADS, TM is also pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Farid Mohamed Sani as Chief Strategy Officer, TM beginning 1 January 2012, taking over the position from Ahmad.

Dr Farid, 36, was the Director of Investments at Khazanah Nasional Berhad (Khazanah), specialising in the telecommunications sector. He has previously sat on the TM Board of Directors as the Non-Independent Non-Executive Alternate Director to Tunku Dato’ Mahmood Fawzy Tunku Muhyiddin, as well as serving as a Board Member of Axiata Group Berhad and Celcom Axiata Berhad since April 2008. He has been with Khazanah since 2004 and has also served in Khazanah’s Transformation Management Office and the Managing Director’s Office as Senior Vice President, before assuming his current position in April 2010. Prior to that, Dr Farid was a consultant at McKinsey & Company for two years. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering, as well as a PhD in Chemical Engineering, all three from the University of Cambridge.

With his appointment as TM’s Chief Strategy Officer, Dr Farid will leave Khazanah Nasional and has resigned from his post as the Non-Independent Non-Executive Alternate Director of TM with effect from 15 December 2011. He has also relinquished all his positions on the Boards mentioned.

“On behalf of TM’s management, I would like to welcome Dr Farid into our Management Committee. We are confident Dr Farid will further strengthen TM’s strategic direction as he brings with him considerable knowledge and experience in strategy as well as in the telecommunications field. At the same time, we would like to thank him for his advice and guidance throughout his tenure on the TM Board. As Chief Strategy Officer, Dr Farid will play an important role contributing towards TM’s future sustainable growth. Together with the appointment of Ahmad as CEO VADS and the current management line-up, we believe TM is on an even stronger footing in our quest to realise our true potential as Malaysia’s leading new communications provider,” said Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani.