Ursula Burns officially made Veon CEO, at last

Eight months after losing its last CEO, telecoms group Veon has decided to stick with Chairman Ursula Burns in the dual role.

When Jean-Yves Charlier suddenly had his security pass revoked back in March, there was a curious silence on the matter of his replacement. That silence continued for so long that, distracted by the passing of the seasons, everyone forgot Veon didn’t officially have a CEO.

Today, what vestigial speculation there may have been was finally put to rest when Veon anointed Ursula Burns as CEO. To call this a bolt from the blue would be an exaggeration as Burns was already Chairman and had been covering the CEO role since Charlier cleared off. But sometimes these things need to be rubber-stamped.

“I am honoured to be appointed Chairman and CEO of Veon,” said Burns. “The company operates in a diverse group of markets, with growing populations and rapidly increasing smartphone ownership. This clearly presents a host of growth opportunities for Veon as we seek to build on the positive momentum that we are seeing across the business. I look forward to continuing to lead Veon towards more success and increased shareholder value.”

“The Board has been impressed with Ursula’s performance and leadership of the company,” said Veon board Director Julian Horn-Smith. “The management team are clearly working well together and focused on delivering against strategic priorities. Ursula has led Veon through a major transaction in the sale of its Italy joint venture for $2.9 billion and overseen a period of solid quarterly operational performance. We are confident that with her as Chairman and CEO there will be further improvements across the business.”

So there you have it. To be fair, actually getting someone to do the job for eight months is a fairly rigorous interview process, so Horn-Smith and his fellow board member can feel pretty confident of having made as informed a decision as possible.