Maxis appoints Morten Lundal as new CEO

By Digital News Asia July 16, 2013

Group chief commercial officer of Vodafone Group named as new Maxis CEO.
Appointment is effective 1 October 2013

Maxis appoints Morten Lundal as new CEO MAXIS Berhad has announced the appointment of Morten Lundal as its new chief executive officer (CEO), effective Oct 1.

Lundal will be reporting to the chairman of the Board and be appointed to the Board as an executive director.

Maxis chairman Arshad Uda said the company was "delighted" to welcome Lundal on board.

“We are confident that we have identified the right person. He has demonstrated the ability to take bold steps and make radical changes to align an organisation to anticipated changes in the industry and consumer demand.

"We particularly welcome his focus on innovation and management development,” Arshad said.

The appointment comes after Maxis’ initially appointed another former DiGi executive Johan Dennelind, who declined the CEO position, citing personal circumstances in May.

That resulted in an interim measure which saw Nasution Mohammed, chief financial officer, appointed to the position of joint chief operating officer (COO) together with the current joint COO Suren J. Amarasekera to provide overall leadership to the company and be responsible for its performance.

Lundal is presently group chief commercial officer of Vodafone Group Plc, a member of the executive committee responsible for commercial activities at the group level.

Commenting on his appointment, Lundal said: “I am very happy to join Maxis and look forward to using my experience and energy to build on the inherent strengths of the company and its leadership of the telecommunications industry in Malaysia.”

Prior to assuming this position in 2010, he was regional CEO responsible for eight operating companies in Central Europe and Africa. He joined Vodafone from DiGi.Com Berhad Group, Malaysia (DiGi Malaysia) in 2008.

In 2004, Lundal joined DiGi Malaysia as CEO, where he was instrumental in instituting various changes crucial to the telco operator’s transformation and growth. Under his leadership, mobile revenue market share, earnings and share price increased significantly.

He joined Nordic mobile operator Telenor in 1997 and held several CEO positions including for the Internet Division and Telenor Business Solutions as well as the position of executive vice president for Corporate Strategy.

He holds a Master of Business Administration from IMD Lausanne and a Master of Business and Economics from the Norwegian School of Management (BI).