Mohammad Khairil Abdullah joins the VEON leadership team as CEO of VEON Ventures on 1 March this year.
Mohammad Khairil Abdullah will be based in Amsterdam, alongside the rest of the group’s leadership team. He is currently CEO of Axiata Digital Services, part of the Axiata Group which operates in South-East Asia.
During his tenure there, Abdullah built and operated digital businesses in data, AI, fintech and system integration, and fostered VC opportunities and external funding.
Before joining Axiata in 2012, as Group Chief Marketing and Operations Officer, Abdullah worked at Bain & Company for 15 years, becoming its telco practice managing partner for South-East Asia.
Gennady Gazin, VEON’s Chairman, commented, “With Khairil at the helm we will accelerate our focus on digital ventures, pushing JazzCash [the digital financial services provider in Pakistan], Toffee [streaming app in Bangladesh] and ShopUp [Bangladesh’s B2B commerce platform] to the next level, as well as other great initiatives in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and across VEON’s footprint.
“Khairil and his team will continue to focus on our key mission: deliver strong shareholder value by building and monetizing outstanding assets.”
“Ventures is one of our three main vectors of growth and value generation we presented at our Investor Day”, said Kaan Terzioğlu, VEON’s Chief Executive Officer.
“Khairil will contribute to the success of our Group ambitions with his deep expertise in growing and developing digital assets, in combination with a profound knowledge of telcos, exploiting all related cross-synergies while pursuing high-growth opportunities with the flexibility offered by a dedicated company.”