Bahraini operator group Batelco has appointed Alan Whelan as group CEO. Whelan’s appointment comes almost a year after the firm announced former CEO Shaikh Mohamed bin Isa Al Khalifa left the group. At the time it installed a supervisory committee alongside COO Peter Kaliaropoulos to lead the business until a successor was appointed.

Whelan has held several high ranking roles in the telecommunications sector, including business manager and global joint venture leader at UK fixed line incumbent BT, VP for EMEA at US operator AT&T, managing director of Cable and Wireless’ wholesale and enterprise businesses and president for EMEA at Indian cloud services provider Global Cloud Xchange, formerly Reliance Globalcom.

Batelco chairman Shaikh Hamad bin Abdulla Al Khalifa said that Whelan has a “proven record of achievement and we are confident that he has the necessary credentials to meet the stringent criteria required for this key role”.

Last month, Batelco announced a year on year increase in gross revenue of 22 per cent for 2013 to reach BD370.6m ($983.0m). However, net profit for the year fell by 28 per cent year on year to BD43.6m. The operator’s total subscriber base grew 18 per cent year on year to nine million across the 14 markets it operates in.

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