Former MCMC Chairman appointed as Celcom’s interim Chairman

Celcom Axiata Berhad (Celcom) has announced the appointment of Tan Sri Dr Halim Safie as its interim Chairman effective 2nd June 2022. This comes after Dato Izzaddin Idris stepped down from his role as President and Group CEO of Axiata Group Berhad (Axiata), who also served as a Chairman of Celcom.

Before taking on the Chairman role at Celcom, Tan Sri Dr Halim Safie was appointed as a Non-Executive Director Axiata on 1 November 2020. He was the Chairman of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) twice. His first tenure was from April 2006 until May 2009. He served as Chairman again in January 2015 until his resignation in 2018 after the change of Malaysia’s administration.

Dr Halim has served in several other government agencies including the Ministry of Education, Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) and the National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN). Between 2009 to 2015, Dr Halim was also the Chairman of Telekom Malaysia.

Commenting on the appointment, Celcom CEO Datuk Idham Nawawi said “Together with the management of Celcom, we welcome Tan Sri Dr Halim Shafie as our new chairman and are excited to work with him and the board. We look forward to his guidance and leadership in driving the organization towards new strides and creating real value for our customers.”

Dr Halim graduated with a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) degree from University of Malaya in 1972, and obtained a Masters Degree in Economic Development in 1980. He obtained his PH.D in Information Transfer in 1998 from Syracuse University.

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