OREANDA-NEWS. VimpelCom, the leading global provider of telecommunications and digital services headquartered in Amsterdam and serving over 200 million customers, today announced that it has appointed Kjell Morten Johnsen as Head of Major Markets.  

In this new role, Kjell will be a member of the Group’s Executive Committee, responsible for VimpelCom’s businesses in Russia and Italy, and will report to Chief Executive Officer, Jean-Yves Charlier. The appointment marks another milestone in building a world-class management team to lead the transformation of VimpelCom.

Commenting on the appointment, Jean-Yves Charlier said: “As VimpelCom accelerates its transformation, the continued strengthening of our management team is an essential foundation of building a world-class business. Russia and Italy are two major markets for our Group and Kjell brings the leadership and experience to drive the transformation of these businesses and implement our digital strategy. Kjell’s expertise in Russia and European markets as well as experience at VimpelCom as a former member of the Supervisory Board will be of significant benefit to the Group.” 

“I look forward to joining VimpelCom's transformation journey and aim to drive significant improvements in our Russian and Italian businesses, based on our digital agenda and radical simplification of the way we deliver our services. Our joint venture in Italy represents a tremendous opportunity for VimpelCom, as we create a new, strong and efficient operator with a leading position in the Italian market, supporting the country’s digital ambitions,” said Kjell Morten Johnsen. 

Kjell has extensive international expertise in senior roles across a variety of industries, with responsibility for markets such as Russia, Scandinavia, and Central and Eastern Europe. Kjell joins VimpelCom from Telenor, where he was head of Telenor Europe with previous roles as CEO of Telenor Serbia as well as Senior Vice President and Head of Telenor Russia, Telenor Central & Eastern Europe. He was also a member of VimpelCom Ltd’s Supervisory Board from 2011 until 2015 and PJSC’s Board of Directors from 2007 to 2013. Prior to entering the telecommunications industry in 2000, Kjell worked for Norsk Hydro in France and Ukraine, and Scandsea International in Norway and Russia. He is Norwegian and has an MBA from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. He attended the University of Oslo, Norwegian School of Management, and Nord University Business School.