Axiata Group Berhad has appointed Thomas Hundt as its Group Chief Strategy & Technology Officer who will be tasked with driving Group-wide innovation and technological advancement in the region and will be instrumental in securing new and long-term growth opportunities.
This comes off the back of the group’s ongoing strengthening process of its top management in order to deliver its ambitious digital transformation agenda.
Thomas was the CEO of Smart Axiata since 2013, and was instrumental in raising the company’s performance in Cambodia in core areas of operations, customer-centricity, and financial standing despite highly competitive market conditions. In recognition of his consistent bid to outperform, Axiata appointed Thomas as Group Executive Vice President of Group Technology in 2020 with a deliberate focus to harness Group-wide synergies and efficiencies for enhanced operational excellence, among others.
Dato’ Izzaddin Idris, President & Group Chief Executive Officer of Axiata said, “As CEO of Smart Axiata he has worked very hard quarter after quarter to deliver stellar results across all key metrics. He also took on the additional position of EVP of Group Technology to successfully lead our technology transformation in an effort to unlock Group-wide synergy as aligned with global practices.”
Thomas was first the CEO for Smart Mobile since 2008, and steered the greenfield company to where it successfully merged with Star-Cell in 2011 and subsequently with Hello Axiata in 2013, moving quickly from the number eight position to number three in the market. Under his stewardship, Smart Axiata grew rapidly to eventually become the number one player in the country.
In accepting this position within the Group, Thomas will relocate to Kuala Lumpur and will step down as the CEO of Smart. Feiruz Ikhwan, CFO of Smart in the meantime will assume the role of Acting CEO.
