Leadership

Alex Bolis joined VEON as Group Head of Corporate Strategy, Communications and Investor Relations, and appointed as a member of Group Executive Committee in April 2021.

Prior to this he had a long career at Telecom Italia S.p.A. where he held the roles of Group Treasurer, Head of Investor Relations and Strategic Advisor to the CEO. Alex also spent more than 10 years in investment banking.

Dmitry Shvets joined VEON as Group Head of Portfolio Management and was appointed as a member of Group Executive Committee in April 2021. Dmitry’s role includes oversight of VEON’s Performance Management and M&A teams.

Dmitry has a private equity background, most recently as Head of Russia and CIS for TPG Capital, where he focused on the operational performance of TPG’s portfolio companies and investing activities. He also has management consulting experience from McKinsey and held a senior management role leading a large operational transformation program in metals and mining. He also has prior experience in channel management, pricing and distribution in the FMCG industry.

Joop Brakenhoff was appointed as Group Chief Internal Audit & Compliance Officer and a member of Group Executive Committee in November 2020.

Joop joined VEON as the company’s Head of Internal Audit in January 2019. Prior to this he was at Heineken International, where he was the head of Global Audit. Joop has also held senior Audit roles at Royal Ahold, prior to which he was Chief Financial Officer of Burg Industries B.V. Joop started his career at KPMG in 1985 where he worked for nine years in a variety of audit roles.

Kaan Terzioğlu was appointed as Group Chief Executive Officer on 1 July 2021.

Kaan joined VEON as co-Chief Operating Officer in November 2019 after stepping down from the Group’s Board, where he served for several months. Kaan then served as co-Chief Executive Officer from March 2020 to June 2021.

Prior to joining VEON, Kaan was Turkcell’s Chief Executive Officer from April 2015 until March 2019. In that role, he led the company’s successful digital transformation. Before joining Turkcell, Kaan held global managerial roles at Cisco and Arthur Andersen, working across Europe and the United States. He is a GSMA Board member and previously served on the GSMA Foundation Board and the Advisory Board of the World Economic Forum’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Michael Schulz was appointed as VEON’s Chief People Officer in August 2021 and is a member of VEON’s Group Executive Committee.

Michael joins VEON from Puma Energy, where he was Chief People & Culture Officer and worked closely with the company’s Board of Directors as a member of its Group Executive Committee. Prior to Puma Energy, Michael led the Human Resources function for two of Petrofac plc’s global Oil & Gas Services businesses, its Turn-Key Facilities business as well as its Engineering Services business as Senior Vice President of Human Resources, based in Dubai.

A lawyer by training, Michael was previously Legal Counsel for BRAAS, a subsidiary of Redland plc and had a wide-ranging career at Lafarge (now Holcim) following the company’s acquisition of Redland in 1997, including the role of Legal Counsel in Germany, Vice President of Organisational Effectiveness in Paris and Vice President of Human Resources for Middle East and North Africa, based in Cairo.

Michael graduated from the University Bayreuth, Bavaria, with a degree in Law. He also specialised in parallel in Organisational Psychology and Business Finance. He holds an MSc equivalent in Law from the State of Rhineland Palatine, qualifying him to serve as a solicitor, judge or Attorney at Law.

Mohd Khairil Abdullah was appointed CEO of VEON Ventures in March 2022.

Khairil joined VEON from Axiata Group, where he was CEO of Axiata Digital and oversaw the digital businesses and investments of the group. In that role he incubated, launched and scaled successful digital businesses in Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Fintech and API platforms. Khairil also oversaw corporate venture capital (CVC) investments for the group and was successful in raising external equity funding funds and strategics to further grow the digital business and CVC portfolio.

Prior to joining Axiata, Khairil held a variety of positions with Bain & Company for over 15 years and worked with leading tech, telecom and media companies across Asia, Europe and North America.

Khairil is an engineering graduate of the University of Cambridge, UK and holds an MBA from INSEAD, France.

Serkan Okandan was appointed as VEON’s Group Chief Financial Officer and a member of Group Executive Committee in May 2020.

Serkan brings more than 25 years' experience to VEON, including as Group CFO at the Etisalat Group and Group CFO at Turkcell. During his twenty years at the Etisalat Group and Turkcell, telecommunications providers in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, he also held senior management and board positions of subsidiaries in Ukraine and Pakistan - two of VEON's largest operating countries.

Serkan is a graduate of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Bosphorus University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Victor Biryukov was appointed as Group General Counsel and a member of the Group Executive Committee in January 2022.

Previously he was Beeline Russia’s Vice-President for Legal, Government Relations and Compliance and a member of the company’s Management Board. 

Prior to joining Beeline Russia, he held senior positions including serving as the General Counsel of Access Industries for Russia & CIS, Managing Director for Legal Affairs of Brunswick Rail Management, and was a board member in a number of large Russian companies.

He holds a Law degree from Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and a Master of Law from Northwestern University. He is also a graduate of Harvard Business School’s General Management Program.

Aamir is Chief Executive Officer of Jazz, Pakistan’s number one 4G operator and leading digital service provider with over 71 million subscribers. Prior to his position as CEO, Aamir was Jazz’s Deputy CEO and Chief Commercial Officer.

Aamir has over two decades of international experience as a senior executive across multiple industries and continents. Prior to joining Jazz, Aamir was the Senior Vice President for Telenor Group, where he led distribution initiatives across Asia. Aamir has also held senior leadership positions at Ford Motor Company, Jaguar & Land Rover.

Aamir brings with him a wealth of experience specifically in strategic marketing, sales and distribution, analytics, product development, government and regulatory management, business planning, M&A, public relations and crisis management.

Aamir is a Pakistani native, with an undergraduate degree in Accounting from the University of Texas and an MBA from IMD in Switzerland. In 2012, Aamir received an Advanced Management Program diploma from Harvard Business School. Aamir has lived and worked across multiple cultures and countries including Thailand, Pakistan, the UK, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland and the US.

Aleksandr joined VEON in 2013 and since 2015 was CEO of Beeline Kazakhstan, where he oversaw solid revenue growth and the launch of new digital services. In addition to that role, he was initially appointed interim CEO of Kyivstar in July 2018. He moved to become permanent CEO of Kyivstar in December that same year. 

Before joining VEON, Aleksandr was Director General of GroupM, the largest marketing company in Ukraine, and held several senior marketing and commercial roles with international and Ukrainian companies. Aleksandr holds an MBA degree from the Stockholm School of Economics. He also is a graduate of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.

Alexander Torbakhov was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Beeline Russia in April 2020.

Alexander has more than 25 years’ experience, including most recently at X5 Retail Group and Sberbank, Russia’s largest retailer and largest bank, respectively.  At Sberbank, he served on its board as Deputy Chairman and managed retail banking operations, including the expansion of digital products and services to more than 80 million customers. Alexander briefly led Beeline Russia’s operations a decade ago.

Alexander holds a MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and previously graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Andrey Pyatakhin was appointed as CEO of Beeline Kyrgyzstan in December 2021.

Andrey joined VEON Group in 2001 and served the Group for over 20 years in various capacities, including as the CEO of Beeline Georgia, the CEO of Beeline Armenia and most recently as Beeline Russia’s Vice President for the Southern Region.

Andrey is a member of the Harvard Business School alumni and is also a graduate of Lipetsk State Technology University.

Andrzej Malinowski was promoted to the position of Chief Executive Officer of Beeline Uzbekistan in March 2021.

Mr. Malinowski joined Beeline Uzbekistan from Beeline Georgia, where he has held the position of CEO from May 2017. Before joining VEON, Andrzej worked for Lamoda Ukraine, where he was CEO for the last five years.

In his previous role in Lamoda, a leading international online retail business and part of the Global Fashion Group founded by Rocket Internet, Andrzej launched Lamoda Marketplace which quickly gained a leading position amongst existing online retailers. Also during his tenure, he successfully introduced private labels on their digital platform and significantly grew their business. Andrzej holds a Finance Law degree from the University of Wroclaw and a Business Study diploma from the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Erik Aas has headed VEON’s Bangladesh operations since December, 2015. He joined VEON from PT AXIS Telekom Indonesia.

Erik has previously served as CEO of Grameenphone in Bangladesh, and was also the Chief Marketing Officer of Malaysian operator DiGi. Erik has an Executive MBA from IMD in Switzerland and a Masters of Science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Evgeniy Nastradin was promoted to the position of Chief Executive Officer of Beeline Kazakhstan in February 2019.

Evgeniy joined VEON in 2016 and was Chief Commercial Officer at Beeline Kazakhstan during a period of solid revenue growth and the launch of new digital services. Prior to joining VEON, Evgeniy was Deputy CEO of a leading consumer finance company in Russia.

Matthieu has a deep knowledge of Algeria, with significant experience in senior executive roles in the industry and in the Middle East and North Africa. Matthieu was previously Chief Commercial Officer for VEON’s emerging markets, which serves 95 million customers in Algeria, Bangladesh and Pakistan. His previous roles include Chief Marketing & Communication Officer of KenCell in Kenya from 2000 to 2004; Chief Commercial Officer of Djezzy from 2005 to 2009; Chief Commercial Officer of Tunisie Telecom from 2009 to 2014, and Chief Commercial Officer of Zain in Saudi Arabia from 2014 to 2016.

Matthieu, a French national, holds a Master’s degree in Econometrics, and a post graduate degree in economics and energy from the University of Paris X.

On Wednesday 22 December 2021, Dr. Dmitry Borisovitch Zimin passed away peacefully at the age of 88. A great innovator of our time, he was bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it. 

Dr. Zimin was born on April 28, 1933 in Moscow. His father, Boris Nikolaevich Zimin, a research associate at Bauman State Technical University, was persecuted for political reasons and was sent to a Soviet penal labor camp in 1935. His mother worked as a typist. In 1957, Dr. Zimin graduated from the “Radio Electronics for Flying Vehicles School” at Moscow Aviation Institute. In 1963 he received a PhD, and in 1984 a ScD degree.

Dr. Zimin was an academic at International Telecommunications Academy, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences and a member of the presidium of the Russian Academy of Business. He was an author of over 100 scientific studies and inventions, a winner of the Popov Award given by the USSR Science Academy in 1965 and the State Award of the Russian Federation in 1993.

Dr. Zimin occupied managerial positions at the A.L. Mints Institute of Radio Engineering (RTI) for more than 35 years. He was employed as head of the laboratory, head of its scientific department, director of the center for developing radio engineering equipment and deputy chief constructor of the ground-based radar element of a major missile defense system.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Dr. Zimin, with a group of RTI engineers, established a small enterprise called “KB Impuls,” which developed projects and manufactured radio equipment for civil purposes.

In 1992, he co-founded of VimpelCom and made a significant contribution to shaping the mobile communications market in Russia. In 1996, VimpelCom, which had transformed into an open joint-stock company by the time, became the first Russian company  to list on a major US-based exchange.

As Director General and President at VimpelCom, Dr. Zimin was a member of the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) for many years. In 2001, he received the National Award “Business Olympus” in the category of “Business Reputation.”

In May 2001, Dr. Zimin retired as VimpelCom’s Director General. Following a decision by the Board of Directors, he was given the title of “Honorary President and Founder of VimpelCom”.

Upon his retirement, Dr. Zimin established the non-profit Dynasty Foundation to support Russian fundamental science and education, and popularize scientific knowledge. It remained active until 2015.