VEON serves dynamic frontier markets that are home to 520 million people, transforming lives and unlocking the potential of the countries that we operate in. Our Board, consisting of seven exceptional individuals that represent a diverse range of expertise and perspectives, embody the commitment to excellence and strategic vision that defines VEON. We are pleased to serve our shareholders, markets and customers as VEON progresses with its growth journey, powered by the pioneering spirit embedded in its DNA.
Augie K Fabela II
Chairman of the Board, VEON Founder
Andrei Gusev
Member of the Board of Directors
Rt Hon Sir Brandon Lewis CBE
Member of the Board of Directors
Duncan Perry
Member of the Board of Directors
Michael R. Pompeo
Member of the Board of Directors
Michiel Soeting
Member of the Board of Directors
Kaan Terzioğlu
Member of the Board of Directors
Our Governance and Board Committees
VEON is committed to delivering high standards of corporate governance, both now and in the future. Our structure is designed to promote integrity in everything we do, and responsible and effective governance is core to our culture. For more information on our Values and Culture, including our Code of Conduct, Business Partner Code of Conduct and Speak Up policy, please click here.
Our Board of Directors has the authority to make strategic decisions for the Group. Our bye-laws require that the Board approves important matters including, among others, the Group’s annual budget and audited accounts, organisational or reporting changes, major transactions or other significant actions. All Board members are elected by our shareholders through a cumulative voting process.
Nominations Committee
The purpose of the Nomination Committee is to assist and advise VEON’s Board with its responsibilities with respect to nominating directors for election to the Board and fulfilment of the Board’s corporate governance responsibilities. The Committee helps identify candidates to serve on the Board and its Committees and advises the Board on how its committees and subcommittees should be structured. In addition, the Committee helps the Board develop and adopt suitable corporate governance practices for VEON. The Committee periodically reviews and monitors VEON Group’s corporate governance guidelines and periodically conducts an evaluation of the performance of the Board and its committees.
Committee Members: Augie K Fabela II (Chair), Michiel Soeting, Sir Brandon Lewis, Duncan Perry.
Remuneration Committee
The purpose of the Remuneration Committee is to assist and advise VEON’s Board with its responsibilities with respect to overseeing the performance, selection, re-appointment, early termination and compensation of the Company’s CEO, CXOs, the CEOs of VEON's operating subsidiaries and other senior executives. The Committee also periodically assesses director, executive and employee compensation and participation in benefit/incentive plans and provides its recommendations to the Board. The Committee shall also advise the VEON Board on the Company’s overall culture and values, talent management and succession planning programs.
Committee Members: Sir Brandon Lewis (Chair), Andrei Gusev, Augie K Fabela II.
Audit and Risk Committee
Our Audit & Risk Committee is responsible for the appointment, compensation, retention and oversight of auditors, establishing procedures for addressing complaints related to accounting or audit matters and engaging necessary advisors. Our Audit & Risk Committee is required to satisfy the requirements of Rule 10A-3 under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the rules and regulations thereunder.
Committee Members: Michiel Soeting (Chair), Augie K Fabela II, Duncan Perry.
Biographies of VEON Board Members
Augie K Fabela II
Chairman of the Board, VEON Founder
Augie K Fabela II is the Chairman of the Board and Founder of VEON. He also serves as Chair of the Remuneration and Governance Committee and a Member of the Audit and Risk Committee.
Mr. Fabela has been an independent director of VEON since June 2022. He previously served as Chairman of the Board of VEON from June 2011 to December 2012, and previously from 1994 to 2001, when the Company went public on the NYSE. Mr. Fabela is also the Founder and Executive Chairman of FastForward.ai, an E-commerce-as-a-Service company, and a Board director and member of the Finance Committee at Shareability, a brand performance agency, since 2019. Mr. Fabela is a proven serial entrepreneur, #1 best-selling author, and innovative leader having served as a founding member of the Chairmen's Community of the World Economic Forum. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations and International Policy Studies from Stanford University.
Andrei Gusev
Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Andrei Gusev has been a director of VEON Ltd. since April 2014. Mr. Gusev is a senior partner at LetterOne Technology (UK) LLP, joining in 2014, and was a managing director at Altimo from 2013 to 2014. Mr. Gusev was Chief Executive Officer of X5 Retail Group N.V. from 2011 to 2012 and prior to that, served as its director of business development and M&A from 2006 to 2010. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Gusev served as managing director of the Alfa Group with overall responsibility for investment planning. Prior to that, Mr. Gusev worked at Bain & Company and Deloitte Consulting. Mr. Gusev received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000 and a diploma with honors from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1994.
Rt Hon Sir Brandon Lewis CBE
Member of the Board of Directors
Sir Brandon Lewis is an experienced policy professional with a background in both government affairs and public policy and is skilled in digital strategy development and public and private sector engagement and advocacy. He was a Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth from 2010 until 2024. Sir Brandon Lewis served 10 years in the UK Government with 5.5 of those years in Cabinet in a range of roles: Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Ministry of Justice UK in 2022; Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office from 2020 to 2022; Minister of State (National Security) and UK Home Office from 2019 to 2020; Cabinet Minister without Portfolio as well as Chairman of Conservative Party from 2018 to 2019. Between 2016 and 2018, Sir Lewis served the UK Home Office in consecutive roles as Minister of State for Policing & the Fire Service, and then as Minister of State (Immigration & International). Prior to that, he was Minister of State from 2014 to 2016 and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2012 to 2014 with Department for Communities and Local Government. Currently, he is a strategic advisor to each of LetterOne, Civitas Investment Management, FM Conway and Thakeham since 2023. He also serves as a non-executive director of Woodlands Schools since 2023, having also been a director there from 2001 to 2012. Sir Brandon holds a BSc (Econ) and an LLB, Law from the University of Buckingham, and an LLM, Law (Commercial) from King’s College London. He is also a qualified a Barrister, Law from Inns of Court School of Law.
Duncan Perry
Member of the Board of Directors
Duncan Perry is a lawyer with 30 years of legal experience and has been a senior legal adviser at the international investment firm LetterOne since July 2023. Prior to this, Mr. Perry was a general counsel and entrepreneur for 10 years, involved in a number of diverse projects, including being a founding team member and director of the UK regulated FinTech bank Kroo. Mr Perry was Global General Counsel at Barclays Wealth for 7 years, where he was a member of the Barclays Wealth executive committee and responsible for legal and compliance risk across 24 jurisdictions. At Barclays he was a member of several committees, including the chair of the Risk and Reputation Committee. Mr Perry also previously had roles, including European COO and General Counsel of the hedge fund Amaranth and European Head of Compliance (FIRC) at UBS Investment Bank, where he was also Global legal head of Syndicated Finance and Debt Trading. Prior to this, Mr. Perry was a banking lawyer at both Sherman & Sterling and Allen & Overy, in London and New York. Mr Perry attended Exeter University where he obtained a First Class law degree. He is currently an adjunct lecturer at Exeter University Business School on the MSc FinTech programme. Mr. Perry is also currently a board member of a charity which helps students from underrepresented communities obtain employment at elite institutions.
Michael R. Pompeo
Member of the Board of Directors
Michael R. Pompeo served as the 70th Secretary of State of the United States, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and was elected to four terms in Congress representing the Fourth District of Kansas. Mike graduated first in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986. He served as a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army, leading troops patrolling the Iron Curtain. Mike left the military in 1991 and then graduated from Harvard Law School, having served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Up next was almost a decade leading two manufacturing businesses in South Central Kansas – first in the aerospace industry and then making energy drilling and production equipment.
In 2010, Mike watched the government grow too big and decided to run for Congress. He won and was re-elected three more times to represent South Central Kansas – the heartland of America. Becoming America’s most senior spy, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was Mike’s next chance to champion American values. President Donald Trump saw that good work and decided to make Mike America’s 70th Secretary of State. As our nation’s most senior diplomat in the Trump Administration and President Trump’s chief negotiator, Mike helped to craft U.S. foreign policy based on our nation’s founding ideals. During this time, America became a massive energy exporter and a force for good in the Middle East, with real peace cemented in the Abraham Accords. Mike also placed special emphasis on renewing alliances with key allies, including India, Japan, Australia, and South Korea. The largest human rights gatherings ever held at the State Department occurred under his leadership.
Since leaving government, Mike has remained active on the global stage advancing American interests. Currently, he serves as Executive Chair of Impact Investments, a US-based strategic and financial advisory and investment firm which seeks to develop long-term partnerships with the world’s leading companies across a range of industries and geographies.
Married to Susan, Mike and his wife have one son, Nick. Mike and Susan were thrilled to see their family grow to include a daughter-in-law when Nick married his wife, Rachael, in 2022! Mike and Susan’s two retrievers, Sherman and Mercer, each named after important American generals, are patriots too!
Michiel Soeting
Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Michiel Soeting has been a director of VEON Ltd. since March 2022 and the Company deemed Mr. Soeting to be an independent director. Mr. Soeting has 32 years of experience with KPMG, one of the leading audit firms worldwide. While at KPMG, he worked in key locations in the EMEA, ASPAC and the Americas regions, becoming KMPG partner in 1998 and leading some of its largest global advisory and audit clients, including BHP Group, Equinor, LafargeHolcim, Philips Electronics, RD Shell, and Wolters Kluwer. From 2008, Mr. Soeting served as a global head of the KPMG Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) sector, and as a global Chairman of the KPMG ENR Board. From 2009 to 2014, he was a member of the KPMG Global Markets Steering Committee. From 2012 to 2014, Mr. Soeting served as a member of the European Resource Efficiency Platform of the European Commission. From 2019, Mr. Soeting has taken on various oversight roles, in particular, as a member of the Advisory Board of Parker College of Business of Georgia Southern University in the United States and, from January 2021, as a member of the Board of Governors of Reed’s Foundation in the United Kingdom. Mr. Soeting graduated from Vrije University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands as a Chartered Accountant where he completed his Doctoral studies in Economics. He holds an MBA from Georgia Southern University in the United States. In addition, Mr. Soeting is a qualified Chartered Accountant in the United Kingdom.
Kaan Terzioğlu
Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Kaan Terzioğlu has been serving VEON Group as the Group Chief Executive Officer since June 2021. As the Group CEO, Terzioglu leads the executive teams of the Company’s digital operators providing connectivity and digital solutions, empowering their customers with digital finance, education, entertainment and health services, among others, and supporting the economic growth of the Company’s operating markets.
Prior to being appointed as the Group CEO, Mr. Terzioglu served the Company as Group Co-CEO from March 2020 to June 2021, Group Co-COO from November 2019 to March 2020 and a Board director from July 2019 to October 2019. Kaan Terzioglu is currently a Board Member of the GSMA and of the GSMA Foundation, and also serves on the board of Digicel.
Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Terzioglu held regional and global leadership roles in management consulting, technology and telecoms with Arthur Andersen, CISCO and Turkcell in Belgium, United States and Turkey. In 2019, Mr. Terzioglu received GSMA’s “Outstanding Contribution to the Industry” award for his leadership in creating a digital transformation model for the telecoms industry and for his contributions to socially responsible business in telecommunications industry.
Mr. Terzioglu holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Bogazici University and is also a Certified Public Accountant (Istanbul Chamber of Certified Independent Public Accountants).
