– On such a day, I am obviously pleased. I am honored, but I am also humble. For this is a big job, said incoming Telenor CEO Sigve Brekke during a press conference Tuesday morning.
Telenor announced Tuesday morning that Brekke takes over as new CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas 17 August this year. Baksaas is sitting as a special advisor to the board until he retires after 2016.
– I would say that you have shaped me well to fill your shoes, even if they are large, said Brekke to his outgoing boss.
– But Baksaas has actually smaller feet than me, he added afterwards – when he was presented to the employees of a scene that was rigged up outside Telenor’s headquarters at Fornebu .
Sigve Brekke was one of the favorites to take over the top job after Jon Fredrik Baksaas. He is a former politician for the Labour Party and has worked for Telenor since 1999. Since 2008, he has been responsible for the company’s operations in Asia. This experience was, according to chairman and former CEO Svein Aaser crucial for his CEO position.
War Dance Against Corruption
During his time as leader in Asia, Telenor has been involved in a major corruption case in India. In 2012 the company lost mobile licenses its in India, after revelations that their partner had been given licenses by corruption. Now had to participate in a new auction to get buy licenses again. It meant milliardtap and a bad reputation.
Here you can see how Brekke promised battle for the new licenses and how Indian TV covered the case in 2012. In a meeting with employees in India keeps his first clean revival speech, before he folds out into a war dance:
Zero Tolerance
Brekke takes over the helm at a time where two other Telenor subsidiaries is under investigation for corruption in Asia.
In Uzbekistan suspected company Vimpelcom having paid bribes of about $ 100 million to acquire licenses in dictatorship. The money should have gone to a company controlled by the president’s daughter.
In Thailand, Telenor has initiated investigation of what may be a significant corruption case in the subsidiary DTAC. It was Brekke himself who notified of suspicious transactions related to sponsorship activities and donations to public authorities of the company.
– We work in very vulnerable markets, and we must have constant focus on ensuring that we do business in the right way . Therefore, we have also built up etterlevelses- and audit functions to find things if there’s something.
– It is correct that in Thailand has come up stuff through our systems not for our objectives. It just shows that the system works. We have zero tolerance for corruption in Telenor, says Brekke.
Access to new markets
– The main strategy going forward is to bring internet and coverage to everyone in the future – both to the masses in Asia and to the advanced markets in Scandinavia. Being in shaping people’s everyday lives in this way is very exciting, said Brekke.
Under Brekkes management Telenor has grown rapidly in Asia. Brekke believes the company has a lot going on in the Asian market.
– There is far to go before we have filled our ambitions in Myanmar. In addition, we have only just begun in India, and we see in itself a major growth in these two markets. Our focus is there and we have no plans to enter some new markets right now, but we are following developments and are always open to new opportunities, he says to Aftenposten.
Rejects sponsorship of sons organization
According to Kapital DTAC also sponsored charitable activities organized by the sons organization “Kids Action for Kids”, which raises money for surgery for children with cleft lip and palate in Thailand.
The organization has an agreement with DTAC that the company donates one dollar for every dollar collected to the international organization Operation Smiles, which funds and organizes cleft lip and palate operations. Telenor claims to the capital that money has gone straight to Operation Smiles, but does not explain why the company has entered into this agreement with Brekke sons organization.
– This is problematic for you?
– This is not among the sifting. There has never been any money transfers from any Telenor company to the business that my sons have done. It has been known in the Telenor system all the time, and it has been made so we are completely sure that this is part of the way we do business in. Here is nothing to hide and no one thing I can not stand up straight and talk about, says Brekke.
– So Kapital claims that DTAC has sponsored organization with around 1.4 billion is wrong?
– I do not know where they got it’s from. But there has never been any confusion, never any collusion, it has been known and accepted and which is in accordance with the guidelines, says Brekke.
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