Former Digi CMO Loh Keh Jiat heads to Maxis

Former Digi CMO Loh Keh Jiat has joined Maxis as CMO, effective 1 December, reporting to CEO Gokhan Ogut. Loh (pictured) will lead the consumer business division and will work with the rest of the management team towards achieving Maxis’ ambition to be the leading converged solutions company in Malaysia. He was previously with Digi for 12 years and helmed various positions including chief sales officer, head of postpaid, head of corporate strategy and broadband, and head of product marketing.

Loh has over 20 years of experience in the telco industry and has also led major transformation programmes in digitalising customer journeys and modernisation of sales and distribution in recent years. Before Digi, Loh was with Mobile-8 Indonesia and PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia.

Separately, Maxis chief technology and information officer (CTIO) Morten Bangsgaard recently resigned and will be leaving at the end of the year to pursue a new opportunity. He held the CTIO role for over six years and during this time, built a strong IT and network team, which forms the backbone of the company. According to Maxis, Bangsgaard has been instrumental in planning and leading large IT transformation projects, building of enterprise fibre network, cyber security and the company’s vision around cloud and network digitalisation, among many other achievements.

CEO Ogut said Bangsgaard’s departure is a great loss to the company but it takes comfort that it has a solid network and IT foundation that he has helped to build over the years. "This has put us in a continued strong position in achieving our ambition to be Malaysia’s leading converged solutions provider. We wish Morten well and the best in his future endeavors," Ogut said.

With Bangsgaard’s impending departure, Maxis will be streamlining its technology and information division with its digital and transformation division, which will then be restructured into three standalone divisions: IT, network and technology strategy, all of which will report to the CEO. The consolidation supports Maxis’ long-term growth strategy, IT transformation, building the next generation converged network, 5G plans and digitalisation push in the next 12 months.

As a result of the restructuring, Maxis has made three internal promotions to lead the respective standalone divisions, effective 1 December.

Ng May Ching has been named chief information officer where she will continue to lead and drive business IT delivery as well as be responsible for business IT infrastructure, cybersecurity management, data science, digital transformation and business and IT transformation. She continues to lead the development of new cloud enabled capabilities and developing innovation and talent within centres of excellence enabled by IT, digital and data.

Additionaly, it also promoted Abdul Karim Fakir bin Ali to chief network officer. Karim has been leading the telco's network team and has over 20 years of experience in both network and IT system for mobile and fixed communication. He spent a few years in DTAC Thailand as SVP of network services.

Meanwhile, Maxis also promoted Rob Sewell to the new role of chief technology strategy officer. In his new role, Sewell will lead the technology strategy team in strategic industry partnerships, designing and driving Maxis future and new technology roadmap, spectrum allocation and utilisation, network planning rules and architecture, as well as vendor management. He joined Maxis in August 2018 as the head of corporate strategy and was appointed to the chief digital and transformation officer role last May.

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