The Telenor board of directors has confirmed its trust in Sigve Brekke, president and CEO, though he was the head of Asia during the financial irregularities.
Sigve Brekke was the head of Asia when financial irregularities or utilization of funds without proper management, have happened at several telecom operator companies including dtac in Thailand and Grameenphone in Bangladesh, among others.
The opinion of Telenor Group’s Board is that Sigve Brekke is the right person to lead the implementation of the new corporate strategy at Telenor Group. Recently, media has referred to issues from Sigve Brekke’s period as head of Asia. The cases have previously been handled and concluded upon by the Board.
Telenor said the Board had several complex issues for discussion during the past months related to themes like strategy, governance and compliance. There have been differing viewpoints in the Board on some topics. The Board has unanimously concluded on the following points:
The Board and management agreed upon the company’s strategic direction towards 2020. Going forward, the board will focus fully on the continued development of Telenor as a value creating, innovative and responsible company.
During the past year, Telenor has had a specific focus on improving governance and follow-up and review in our different markets. Telenor operates in many challenging markets and will also in the future have to handle compliance and business ethics risks. The Board and management will further strengthen the mitigation work and the development of good systems to detect and solve issues that arise.
