Board of Directors

Gennady Gazin was appointed as Chairman of VEON on 1 June 2020.

Mr. Gazin is the former Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company Russian and CIS practice and the former CEO of one of the largest Ukrainian business groups. Mr. Gazin is actively involved with a number of corporate and non-profit boards, primarily in technology and energy sectors.

Mr. Gazin started his professional career as a systems and telecommunications engineer at Bell Communications Research/Tellcordia and General Dynamics in the US. Mr. Gazin received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the US, a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Mr Albrecht currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Deezer.  He was born in Germany and studied law, earning a Ph.D. at the University of Bochum, before undertaking a variety of management roles in the media, technology and telecommunications industries including as Chief Executive of Millicom International Cellular S.A. (from 2012 to 2015) and Modern Times Group MTG AB (from 1998 to 2012).

Leonid Boguslavsky is the founder of RTP Global, an early-stage venture capital firm with a strong track record of investing in technology and is considered a pioneer of IT and internet tech investments.

As an investor, he is involved with some of the world’s most successful companies, including Yandex, Ozon, Delivery Hero, RingCentral, EPAM and Datadog among many others.

Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Mr. Boguslavsky was a managing partner of PwC Management Consulting Services. In the early 1990s, he built one of Russia’s largest IT solutions integrators.

Mr. Boguslavsky is also an Independent Director of the Sberbank PJSC Supervisory Board, the largest bank in Russia, Central and Eastern Europe.

Mikhail Fridman has been a director of the Company since April 2010. Mr. Fridman, one of the original founders of Alfa Group Consortium, is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Alfa Group Consortium, one of Russia's largest privately owned financial-industrial conglomerates. With effect from 1 July 2016, Mr Fridman stepped down as Chairman of the Board of Letterone Holdings S.A. and Letterone Investment Holdings S.A. and has continued to serve as a member of each such Board since that date.

Mr. Fridman is also a member of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank Russia and a member of the Supervisory Board of X5 Retail Group N.V. Mr. Fridman is a member of the Board of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the International Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations (USA). He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys in 1986. Mr. Fridman was born in L’viv, Ukraine in 1964

Yaroslav Glazunov is a Senior Advisor at LetterOne Technology.

He has been in the global leadership advisory business for 20 years focusing on CEO and top team performance and organizational transformation. Being a senior partner of 2 top global consulting companies he has worked with corporate boards, private equity investors and business founders in 11 countries.

He is active in philanthropy chairing the boards of 2 NGOs and advising philanthropic, education, arts and other nonprofit organizations amplify their social impact and achieve better performance.

Andrei Gusev is Managing Director of LetterOne Technology. Prior to joining LetterOne Technology, Mr. Gusev served as Managing Director at Altimo (2013 – 2014).

In 2011 and 2012, Mr. Gusev was Chief Executive Officer of LSE-listed X5 Retail Group N.V., and from 2006 to 2010, Mr. Gusev was Director of Business Development and M&A of X5. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Gusev served as Managing Director of the Alfa Group with overall responsibility for Investment Planning. Mr. Gusev has also worked at Bain & Company and Deloitte Consulting. In 2000 Mr. Gusev received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (USA). Mr. Gusev graduated with a Diploma with Honors from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at Lomonosov Moscow State University. 

Sergi Herrero was appointed to the VEON Group Board on 10 June 2021. He joined VEON in September 2019 to lead VEON Ventures and later served as co-Chief Executive Officer from March 2020 to June 2021.

Prior to joining VEON, Mr. Herrero served as Global Director of Payments and Commerce Partnerships at Facebook, where he helped to build and expand Facebook’s successful payments and commerce business. Previously, Mr. Herrero held senior executive positions at the financial services company Square and the French bank BNP-Paribas. Mr. Herrero currently serves as mentor at Endeavor, the world’s leading community of high-impact entrepreneurs. He also serves as venture advisor at THCAP, an early stage venture capital fund, and as Senior Advisor at Ripplewood, an American private equity firm.

Mr. Herrero holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science in Telecommunication Management both from Ramon Llull University in Barcelona. He also completed a program in Angel Investing and Venture Capital at Stanford University.

Mr. Holt held a Group Finance Director position at Telenor ASA from 2000 to 2017. From 2006 to 2017 he was a Senior Advisor in Telenor ASA. From 1995 to 1999 he served as Executive Vice President and CFO of Aker ASA and Aker RGI ASA. Prior to this Mr. Holt held various leadership positions in the Aker Group, including Deputy President of Norwegian Contractors AS, Executive Vice President and CFO of Aker Oil and Gas Technology AS, President of Aker Real Estate AS, and Finance and Accounting Director of Aker Norcem AS. From 1978 to 1986 he served as Executive Officer and Special Advisor in the Negotiation Department in the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

Mr. Holt holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree (DBA from Henley Management College/Brunel University in the UK, an MBA from the University of Queensland in Australia, and an MBA in finance from the University of Wisconsin in the US. He has also studied at Northwestern University and the Wharton School/University of Pennsylvania in the US and IMD in Switzerland. Mr. Holt has served on a number of corporate boards.

Robert Jan van de Kraats RA (Chartered Accountant) was appointed as member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Audit & Risk Committee as of 1 August 2018. On 16 February 2021 he was appointed as director liaison for matters related to investor relations. He brings to the Board his experience as a seasoned international non-executive board member. Robert Jan is the former CFO, member of the Executive Board (2001-2018) and Vice Chairman (from 2006) of the Board of Randstad NV, a global provider of recruitment and staffing services. Prior to that he was a member of the Managing Board and CFO of NCM (credit insurance, currently named Atradius). He started his career with the predecessor of PWC.

From 2018 onwards Robert Jan acts as an independent non-executive director and advisor for various companies: The Royal Schiphol Group, TMF (Chairman), HEMA, Randstad Beheer, OCI and SuitSupply.

He used to serve (2013 - 2019) as an advisor to the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM / the Dutch 'SEC'). From 2013 until 2018 he served as a member of the Commission on Dutch Corporate Governance ('commissie Van Manen'), which designed a new governance code for the Netherlands. 

Karen Linehan was appointed to the VEON Group Board as a non-executive director on 5 January 2022.

Karen spent more than 30 years at Sanofi, a leading international healthcare company, in different legal roles, including more than a decade as General Counsel, leading the Legal, Ethics and Business Integrity function. With her global team, she effectively safeguarded the company and its stakeholders from the many challenges of the pharmaceutical sector’s rapidly evolving environment.

As one of the first women of Sanofi’s Executive Committee, and a founding member of the company’s Gender Balance Board, Karen also passionately promoted diversity, gender balance and personal development. Her prior working experience includes practicing law in the New York firm Townley & Updike, and serving on the congressional staff of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

Karen graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies and a Juris Doctorate.

Irene Shvakman is co-founder and Chairman of Revo Technologies and has more than 25 years of experience in fintech, financial services and technology development. Since 2017, Ms. Shvakman has served on the Board of Directors of MTS Bank PJSC, prior to which she was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, where she advised top executives at leading banks, insurers, and regulators across emerging markets on strategy, organisation and performance transformation.

Ms. Shvakman holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Brown University in the United States.

Vasily Sidorov has over 25 years’ experience in top management and non-executive directorship roles in telecoms, digital and other industries. His executive roles include President and CEO of MTS from 2003-2006; CFO of Svyazinvest (Russia) in 1997-2000; and First VP for Finance & Investments at Sistema-Telecom (Russia) in 2000-2003. He was also a key investor and founder of a number of telecoms-related businesses and non-executive director at a number of tech ventures.

Mr. Sidorov has also served on boards of large public and non-public corporations, such as Russian Railways, Aeroflot and Russian Post. He is currently a principal venture capital, private equity and special situations investor in Russia, Continental Europe, the US, as well as in several frontier markets.