The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) has recently organized its Annual General Meeting and elected Supun Weerasinghe, Managing Director and CEO of Robi, as its President. He is replacing AMTOB’s outgoing President and CEO of Banglalink Ziad Shatara.
Airtel’s CEO P.D. Sarma has been elected as the Senior Vice-President of the Association’s Executive Council and Grameenphone’s CEO Rajeev Sethi has been elected as Vice-President of AMTOB.
The Executive Council appointed T.I.M. Nurul Kabir as the Secretary-General & CEO of AMTOB. The AGM, where the new Executive Council was elected, was held on September 20, 2015 at AMTOB secretariat in Dhaka’s Gulshan area.
AMTOB is a national trade body representing all mobile telecom operators in Bangladesh. Airtel, Banglalink, Citycell, Grameenphone, Robi and Teletalk – the six mobile network operators are the members of AMTOB and Huawei and Ericsson are its associate members.
AMTOB has emerged as the official voice of the Bangladesh mobile telecom industry to interact with relevant government agencies, regulators financial institutions, civil society, technical bodies, media and other national and international organizations. It provides a forum to discuss and exchange ideas between the stakeholders and industry actors for the development of mobile telecom industry through public private dialogue.
The Association, on behalf of the mobile telecom sector, has been playing a lead role in partnering with the government in realizing Digital Bangladesh objectives.
AMTOB has been at the forefront in upholding the image of the industry among its stakeholders and consumers. It regularly communicates with policy makers and industry think-tanks on the contribution of the sector for socio-economic development of the country. The Association also plays a key role in enabling the inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the sector.
Mobile telecom industry is one of the largest employers of the country. The sector is also the biggest source of government’s tax revenue.
Supun Weerasinghe is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and MD of Robi Axiata Ltd. Prior to joining Robi in 2014, Supun has served as the Chief Strategy Officer of the Axiata Group. He had also served as the Head of Network Transformation Strategic Business Unit under which he provided leadership to Group Technology, Carrier Collaboration and Axiata Intelligence Unit (previously Axiata Management Services). During this period, Supun had helped the Axiata Group to craft its long-term strategic plan.
As the Group Chief Operating Officer (GCOO) of Dialog Axiata Plc, (Dialog) Sri Lanka’s mobile market leader, Supun was instrumental in driving the team towards making Dialog the leading diverse Telco service provider in Sri Lanka.
He is a fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), UK and holds a B.Sc. in Accountancy and Financial Management from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. He has completed MBA from University of Western Sydney, Australia and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School (AMP 182).
P D Sarma is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. Prior to joining Airtel Bangladesh as the CEO, PD Sarma has been the Hub Chief Executive Officer for West Bengal, Kolkata & Orissa, North East and Assam operations of Bharti Airtel for past four years. He was based out of Kolkata (India).
Prior to this position, he had been the CEO of the Fixed Line and Broadband business of the North India Hub operations of Bharti Airtel. He is an Electronics Engineer and an MBA in Finance with over 25 years of rich work experience in various countries like Denmark, Malaysia, Singapore and India. Before joining Bharti, he headed operations in various verticals in companies like HCL, Sterlite Industries, HasratJaguh SDN BHD Malaysia and ENRON.
Rajive Sethi is the Chief Executive Officer of Grameenphone. Prior to joining Grameenphone he has served as CMO in Uninor for nearly two years. Prior to that, Mr. Sethi spent more than three years as the head of Uninor’s Uttar Pradesh East circle. He has significant ICT industry experience, including executive engagements in companies such as Vodafone, HP, Hutchison Telecom and Asian Paints. Mr. Sethi received an MBA in Marketing, Finance and Operations from the Indian Institute of Management in Lucknow.
T I M Nurul Kabir is the Secretary General and CEO of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB). Mr Kabir has spent 26+ years of his career playing a leading role in the fields of e-Development, Telecom, ICT4D, Software & IT services development. He has contributed for improving the brand image of Bangladesh as a destination for business outsourcing.
Mr Kabir is the elected member of the .ORG Global Advisory Council for 2012-2018 by Public Interest Registry (PIR). He has served as the top level Management in leading National Trade Business Chambers & Associations in Bangladesh; he was former Sr. Vice-President of both Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industries (DCCI) and Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services (BASIS).