Six postings, from Petaling Jaya to Phnom Penh and back to Kuala Lumpur

Mandate

Combine two mobile networks, billing systems and workforces, deliver the announced cost savings, honour every merger undertaking and return the combined company to growth.

Outcomes

• Decommissioned 3,400 duplicate radio sites by March 2026 and kept 900 rural sites for capacity and flood resilience.
• Reached RM610 million of run-rate cost savings by June 2026, against an announced RM750 million for the end of 2026.
• Met every merger undertaking, including the return of 2 × 10 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum and a five-year wholesale reference offer audited independently each year.
• Grew fixed-wireless homes from 160,000 to 410,000 by June 2026.
• Reduced net debt including leases from 2.7 to 2.2 times EBITDA after lowering the dividend payout to 65 per cent to fund fibre backhaul.

Decisions in context

I became chief executive of Seralis on 1 March 2024, the day the merger of Lembayung Mobile and Altirra Wireless completed. The board's mandate was clear and difficult: combine two networks, two billing systems and two workforces without losing the customers the merger was meant to serve, deliver the savings promised to investors and honour every undertaking we had given the regulator. I report to the board through its independent chair and lead eleven executives and about 3,900 colleagues. The first eighteen months were dominated by integration: billing migrated in September 2024, radio decommissioning finished in March 2026, and a voluntary separation scheme agreed with our union reduced headcount from 5,000. Several of my choices made the savings smaller and the network stronger, including keeping 900 rural sites and lowering the dividend to fund fibre backhaul. My task now is to turn an integration programme back into an operating company that grows.

Reason for the move

Current role. Not seeking an executive move; considering one independent directorship with the Seralis board's consent.

Mandate

Return a loss-making fourth-ranked operator to profit and assess the strategic options open to its two shareholders.

Outcomes

• Raised EBITDA margin from 24 per cent in 2020 to 33 per cent in 2023; first net profit in 2022.
• Grew postpaid subscriptions from 1.1 million to 1.7 million.
• Launched fixed-wireless home broadband in 2022, reaching 160,000 homes by completion of the merger.
• Ended fixed minimum commitments on bundled streaming services, cutting their annual cost by about two-thirds.
• Led the merger negotiation and remedy proposal; the agreement with Lembayung was signed in March 2023.

Decisions in context

I returned to Malaysia in July 2020, while movement controls were still in force, to run Altirra Wireless, then the fourth-ranked mobile operator. It was owned 51 per cent by Teguh Permata Holdings and 49 per cent by Corvantis Group, had lost money in 2019 and 2020 and could not fund a network to match its larger rivals. We took out cost, ended bundled streaming commitments that bought little, grew the postpaid base from 1.1 to 1.7 million and launched fixed-wireless home broadband in 2022, which became the merged company's fastest-growing line. Altirra made its first net profit in 2022. The more important work was strategic. In 2022 I recommended to the board that an operator in our position should seek a merger rather than another round of shareholder funding, and that Lembayung was the partner that made sense. I led the negotiation and the remedy proposal, and the merger agreement was signed in March 2023.

Reason for the move

Became chief executive of the combined company when the merger with Lembayung completed in March 2024.

Mandate

Stop the loss of market share and take 4G beyond the main cities on a limited capital budget.

Outcomes

• Agreed a radio-access sharing arrangement with a larger competitor covering 2,100 rural sites, avoiding about US$52 million of capital spending over four years.
• Raised 4G population coverage from 38 per cent to 81 per cent by 2019.
• Grew subscriptions from 3.1 million to 4.3 million.
• Raised EBITDA margin from 21 per cent to 34 per cent.
• Built a leadership team in which six of eight direct reports were Cambodian by 2020, against two in 2016.

Decisions in context

Corvantis sent me to Phnom Penh in January 2016 to run Veyara Mobile, its wholly owned Cambodian operator and my first general-management role. Veyara was the third-largest operator in the country, with 3.1 million subscriptions and 4G coverage confined to the main cities. I reported to the group's chief operating officer in Singapore and sat on Veyara's board in an executive capacity. With about US$30 million a year for capital spending, building a rural network alone was not realistic, so in 2017 we agreed to share radio equipment on 2,100 rural sites with a larger competitor, each operator keeping its own spectrum and core. By 2019, 4G reached 81 per cent of the population, subscriptions had grown to 4.3 million and EBITDA margin had risen from 21 to 34 per cent. I also built a Cambodian leadership team: when I left, six of my eight direct reports were Cambodian, against two when I arrived.

Reason for the move

Asked by Altirra's shareholders to return to Malaysia as its chief executive.

Mandate

Lower the group's network cost per gigabyte and create one approach to towers and network sharing across its markets.

Outcomes

• Sold 3,800 towers in two markets to independent tower companies with long-term leases back, raising US$410 million.
• Reduced radio equipment suppliers from four to two, lowering unit prices by about 11 per cent.
• Wrote the group's template for sharing networks with competitors, later used in three markets.
• Completed an executive MBA part-time in 2014.

Decisions in context

In March 2011 I moved to Corvantis Group's head office in Singapore to lead network strategy and infrastructure sharing across its operating companies in four South and Southeast Asian markets. I reported to the group chief technology officer and led a team of 34, with functional authority over the sharing teams in each market. The work was commercial as much as technical. We sold 3,800 towers in two markets to independent tower companies and leased space on them back, raising US$410 million for the group and turning a fixed asset into a contracted cost. We reduced our radio equipment suppliers from four to two, which cut unit prices by about 11 per cent, and I wrote the template the group still uses for sharing networks with competitors. I studied for an executive MBA in the evenings and completed it in 2014. When Corvantis offered me its Cambodian operator, I accepted because I wanted to be accountable for a whole company rather than advise one.

Reason for the move

Offered the chief executive role at the group's Cambodian operator, my first general-management position.

Mandate

Plan the radio network's growth from 2G into 3G and keep capacity ahead of traffic.

Outcomes

• Planned the 3G network across 4,200 sites between 2005 and 2008.
• Replaced rule-of-thumb capacity planning with cell-level traffic forecasts, reducing congested cells from about 9 per cent to 3 per cent.
• Negotiated the company's first passive site-sharing agreement in East Malaysia in 2009, covering 340 sites in Sarawak.

Decisions in context

I joined Lembayung Mobile in January 2001 as a radio planning engineer, when it was a young operator preparing to list on Bursa Malaysia; it did so in 2003. Over ten years I moved from planning individual sites in the Klang Valley to leading radio network planning nationally, with 85 engineers by 2010 and a reporting line to the chief technology officer from 2007. We planned Lembayung's 3G network across 4,200 sites between 2005 and 2008 and replaced rule-of-thumb capacity planning with forecasts built from each cell's own traffic, which reduced congested cells from about 9 per cent to 3 per cent. In 2009 I negotiated the company's first passive site-sharing agreement in East Malaysia, covering 340 sites in Sarawak, under which two operators shared towers, power and shelters instead of building twice. I left because I wanted to see network decisions across several markets and from the investor's side.

Reason for the move

Wanted to see network decisions across several markets and from the investor's side, which Corvantis offered.

Mandate

Optimise newly built GSM sites for operator customers and bring them to contractual acceptance.

Outcomes

• Optimised more than 600 sites across three operator contracts.
• Reduced dropped calls in a central Kuala Lumpur cluster from 3.4 per cent to 1.2 per cent.
• Kept two drive-test crews employed through the 1998 rollout freeze by moving them to a Penang contract.

Decisions in context

My working life began in July 1995 at Valdren Systems Malaysia, the local subsidiary of a fictional Nordic network-equipment maker, as a field engineer on GSM rollouts for operator customers in the Klang Valley, Penang and Johor. The work was physical: driving test routes with a laptop and a handset on the passenger seat, finding where calls dropped and retuning each site until it passed the operator's acceptance tests. By 1998 I was leading drive-test crews of up to four technicians, and I optimised more than 600 sites, including a cluster in central Kuala Lumpur where we reduced dropped calls from 3.4 per cent to 1.2 per cent. The 1997 financial crisis froze two customers' rollouts within weeks, and I learnt how quickly a network plan becomes a financing problem. I moved to the operator side at the end of 2000 because I wanted to make the decisions about coverage and capital rather than carry them out.

Reason for the move

Wanted to plan networks from the operator's side, where decisions about coverage and capital were made.