Vimpelcom on Friday announced the appointment of Jean-Yves Charlier as its new chief executive.
Charlier will replace Jo Lunder at the helm of the Russian telco. Lunder tendered his resignation, effective from 13 April, although he will remain with the Russian telco until 13 July in an advisory role.
Lunder is leaving "to take up other opportunities", Vimpelcom said, without elaborating.
A well-known name in the world of telecoms, Charlier most recently served as CEO of French mobile operator SFR. He held the post for about 18 months before stepping back late last year following the firm’s sale to Altice and merger with its Numericable business. Eric Denoyer became chief executive of Numericable-SFR.
Charlier has also held the CEO job at interactive education tech firm Promethean and at U.K.-based telco Colt. Prior to joining Colt in 2004, he held executive-level roles at a number of companies, including BT Global Services and Equant, which is now part of Orange.
"Vimpelcom will benefit immensely from his strong experience of delivering customers’ digital, entertainment and communications needs wherever they live and work," company chairman Alexey Reznikovich said, in a statement.
"Jean-Yves is the right person to lead our company in the next stage of its development and at this exciting time of market opportunity, as we enter the digital world focusing on enhancing our customer relationships and providing innovative and exciting services across all of our markets," he added.
Reznikovich also thanked Lunder for his years of services at Vimpelcom, "during which he has overseen a period of rapid growth and expansion."
Lunder was appointed to the CEO role at Vimpelcom in mid-2011, having been with the company since 1999 and previously served as its chairman.
Vimpelcom has undergone major restructuring since Lunder took the CEO job. Its revenues in 2014 came in at $19.63 billion, down from $23.5 billion in 2011, but its mobile customer base has grown; the firm had 221.6 million customers at the end of last year, up from 193 million in mid-2011.
