KUALA LUMPUR (June 3): Celcom Axiata Bhd on Friday (June 3) announced the appointment of Tan Sri Dr Halim Shafie as its interim chairman, effective June 2.
The appointment follows the departure of Datuk Izzaddin Idris from Axiata Group Bhd as its president and group chief executive officer (CEO) on Tuesday, which also saw him resigning as the chairman of Celcom on the same day.
Halim was appointed as an independent non-executive director of Axiata on Nov 1, 2020, and has served in many government agencies, including the Ministry of Education, Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) and the National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN).
In addition, Halim was the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications secretary-general in 2000 and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chairman from 2006 to 2009 before taking up position as the chairman of Telekom Malaysia Bhd from 2009 to 2015.
Prior to joining Axiata, he spent another three years with the MCMC from 2015 to 2018 as its chairman. Halim also served as the chairman of Smart Axiata Co Ltd.
“Together with the management of Celcom, we welcome Tan Sri Dr Halim Shafie as our new chairman and are excited to work with him and the board.
“We look forward to his guidance and leadership in driving the organisation towards new strides and creating real value for our customers,” Celcom CEO Datuk Mohamad Idham Nawawi said in a statement.
At 3.18pm on Friday, Axiata shares had slipped three sen or 0.93% to RM3.18, bringing the group a market capitalisation of RM29.18 billion.