Digital Nasional Berhad has announced the appointment of Datuk Azman Ismail as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). His appointment will take effect tomorrow, 23rd October 2024.
Datuk Azman was the former Managing Director and CEO of PLUS Malaysia, and the former Managing Director of Shell Malaysia Trading Sdn Bhd. The CEO role at DNB was left vacant after former CEO Ralph Marshall stepped down in March 2023 after his two-year contract expired.
According to DNB’s statement, the company is confident that his extensive experience and astute leadership will drive DNB’s efforts in its next phase of development as the company continues to advance Malaysia’s 5G adoption across consumers, enterprises and public services, and support the nation’s digital transformation.
Datuk Azman has been widely speculated as the potential next CEO of the 5G single wholesale network since October last year.
At the moment, DNB has approximately 82% 5G population coverage in the country and it is now partly owned by CelcomDigi, Maxis, U Mobile and YTL (cumulatively 65%) after the completion of the share subscription agreement. The Malaysian government via MOF Inc currently hold the remaining 35% stake and a special share.
As announced by the government last year, Malaysia will transition from a 5G single wholesale network model to a dual network model to ensure redundancy and competition for 5G infrastructure. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has received bids from four telcos to build Malaysia’s second 5G network but the winner has yet to be announced.
