Telekom Malaysia appoints Krish Datta as EVP for digital services

• Former SAP excutive with various startup experience
• To spearhead enterprise, public sector digital transformation

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) has announced the appointment of Krish Datta (pic) as executive vice president of digital services.

In a statement, TM said Datta brings deep expertise in building technology businesses from infancy to regional leadership alongside a broad, diverse set of experiences and skills to the newly created role.

“I am delighted Datta has joined TM. He is a proven technology executive who has been instrumental in building and leading technology companies,” said Imri Mokhtar, group CEO of TM.

“In this new role, Krish will deepen our commitment and ability to enable our enterprise and public sector customers’ digital transformation as we help them improve and accelerate every area of their business with simplicity and confidence.

Imri said while TM's focus remains on our core business, it has charted big, bold moves for the future as TM continues on our growth path.

“Our foray into enterprise digital services will open up new opportunities for TM to expand our customer base,” said Imri.

“I am excited to join TM, for more than one reason.” said Datta.

“I love building sustainable tech businesses, and this opportunity to build a technology-focused team offers me the ability to create, from the inside, another reliable TM brand, a new identity for Enterprise Technology.”

With over 34 years of technology industry experience, TM said Datta has built and led several enterprise technology-based businesses across Asean, India, Japan, Australia, and the Middle East.

He is a passionate business and people leader who has demonstrated a successful track record in Asia with well-established global multinationals and start-up companies, TM said.

Datta was in SAP Asia Pacific for over 16 years holding various leadership positions.

He established SAP in Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and went on to hold the position of president, SAP Southeast Asia, responsible for all aspects of the business from sales, marketing, sales operations, presales, partner and eco-system, finance, support, HR, and consulting.

Upon leaving SAP in 2011, he started a Goldman Sachs-backed data management services and software provider, Back Office Associates (now known as Syniti) in Asia Pacific, Japan,and Middle East region as its CEO, TM said.

He became the co-founder and CEO of Xampr that started a no-code/ low-code mobile platform for mobile application development, focusing on integration, last-mile process and flexible template-based workflow and adoption, it said.

An art lover he also founded online art platform Mayinart.

Datta holds an MBA in marketing and strategy from the European Business School, University of Surrey, UK and a first-class honours degree in applied physics/classical physics from the University of Calcutta, India.

He has also completed the Global Leadership Development Program from INSEAD, France.