The board of Norwegian telecom operator Telenor Tuesday said it has full faith in its president and CEO Sigve Brekke and, despite recent turmoil, he is the right person to lead the company.
“The Board has confirmed its trust in President and CEO, Sigve Brekke and it is the Board’s opinion that Mr. Brekke is the right person to lead the implementation of the new strategy,” said a company statement.
A statement from the Telenor Board of Directors said it has had several complex issues for discussion during the past months related to themes like strategy, governance and compliance. However, going forward, it said the board will focus fully on the continued development of Telenor as a value creating, innovative and responsible company.
Brekke, in the recent past, has allegedly been linked with incidents involving unethical practices and corruptions in some of the Asian markets. He was linked to those cases as these incidents happened when he was heading these markets.
However, the board cleared him from all such allegations.
“The cases have previously been handled and concluded upon by the Board,” it added.
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 therefore further strengthen the mitigation work and the development of good systems to detect and solve issues that arise,” the statement added.
Because of all these allegations and turmoil at Telenor’s Asian markets including Bangladesh and Thailand, it was reported that, the Telenor Board Chair Gunn Waersted had asked Sigve to resign, which, many in the company, had rejected.
Telenor will hold a press conference today to talk about issues around the company and both, the chair Gunn Waersted and Sigve Brekke will be available.
