Svein Aaser elected chairman of Telenor

The corporate assembly of Telenor ASA has elected Svein Aaser as chairman of the board of directors to succeed Harald Norvik.

The corporate assembly also elected Anders Skjævestad to succeed Jan Erik Korssjøen as chairman of the corporate assembly and thus chairman of the nomination committee. Skjævestad has been member of the corporate assembly and the nomination committee since 2009.

Aaser is currently the chairman of the board of Statkraft and Det Norske Oljeselskap.

In a comment Svein Aaser said he is looking forward to working with the Board and management team at Telenor ASA.

"Telenor is among the largest mobile operators in the world and they have achieved a strong market position in a short period of time, both in Europe and in Asia. I look forward to learning more about the organisation and its markets."

Svein Aaser was CEO of Den norske Bank and DnB NOR from 1998 to 2007. He was previously CEO of Nycomed from 1987 to 1996. He has also been the CEO of Storebrand Skade, Nora Matprodukter and Stabburet Nora. He has served as president of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) and as Chairman of Finance Norway (FNO).

Telenor Group has mobile operations in 11 markets in the Nordic region, Central and Eastern Europe and in Asia, as well as a voting stake of 39.5 per cent (economic stake 35.7 per cent) in VimpelCom Ltd., operating in 18 markets.

The Norwegian group is one of the world's major mobile operators with 146 million mobile subscriptions as per first quarter of 2012, revenues in 2011 of NOK 99 billion, and a workforce of approximately 30,000.