Robi appoints its first Bangladeshi CEO

Private mobile phone operator Robi Axiata Limited has named Bangladeshi national Mahtabuddin Ahmed as its next chief executive officer. Mahtab's appointment, effective from November 1 this year, comes as part of Robi's ongoing efforts towards developing and promoting talents from within the company. He will take over the position of CEO and managing director from Supun Weerasinghe, according to a statement issued by the mobile phone company on Wednesday. Mahtab, currently seconded for the Axiata group, will return to Robi’s leadership team from September 1 as deputy CEO, leading up to the completion of his succession as CEO. Weerasinghe will return to Dialog Axiata Plc in Sri Lanka and succeed incumbent Group CEO Hans Wijayasuriya from January 1 next year. After joining Robi in 2010 as chief financial officer – a post he held for four years – Mahtab went on to serve as its chief operating officer from April 2014 to March 2016. Before Robi, Mahtab worked at Unilever for 17 years and held various business and finance leadership positions at home and abroad. The accounting graduate Dhaka University is also a fellow member of Institute of Cost and Management Accountant of Bangladesh, FCMA and CGMA of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA, UK). He is also an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.