M1 : CEO Karen Kooi to retire

SINGAPORE, 5 November 2018 - M1 Limited (M1) announced today that Ms Karen Kooi Lee Wah 64, will retire as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on 6 December 2018, after 23 years with the Group, to pave the way for leadership renewal.

She will be succeeded by telco veteran Manjot Singh Mann who will join as its new CEO on the same date.

Pending developments related to Konnectivity's pre-conditional offer for M1 shares, Karen Kooi will remain on the Board as a Director of M1 Limited. She will also remain as advisor to the Board till 28 February 2019 to ensure a smooth transition.

'Karen, a long-standing and experienced stalwart of M1, has served M1 with distinction in the last 23 years. Under her leadership, M1 has grown and transformed from a pure mobile communications player to a full-service provider. During her tenure as CEO, M1's fixed services revenue grew steadily, achieving double-digit growth in the last five years. And in more recent times, Karen has overseen M1's acceleration into the ICT business and the strengthening of its product offerings to capture new opportunities in the digital economy.

'On behalf of the Board of Directors, Management and staff of M1, I would like to express our gratitude and appreciation towards Karen for her dedication, service and invaluable contributions to the M1 Group in the last 23 years. We wish Karen well in her retirement,' said Mr Danny Teoh, Chairman of M1.

'It has been my privilege and honour to witness and build on M1's growth since its early beginnings, together with a capable and dedicated management team. I would not have accomplished as much without the team. After having spent 23 years with the Company, it is time for me to hand over the mantle. M1 is well-positioned for the next phase of growth and I am committed to working closely with the Board and Manjot to ensure a smooth transition,' said Ms Kooi.

Mr Manjot Singh Mann brings with him over 28 years of well-rounded operational leadership experience across diverse geographical markets and a unique blend of insights and perspectives in the rapidly evolving telecommunications industry.

He was Global CEO (Communications and Convergence) of Lebara Mobile (UK), a hugely successful and one of the largest multinational, pan-European mobile virtual network operators in the world, which was acquired by a Swiss-based equity group in 2017. As a former CEO of Hutchison Telecommunications, Jakarta ('Hutchison 3'), he drove revenue and profitability growth and was responsible for a sizeable uplift in market share, against heavy and entrenched competition in Indonesia.

Mr Mann will join M1 on 6 December 2018 from Pareteum Asia Pte Ltd, where he was appointed CEO to expand NASDAQ-listed Pareteum Corporation's footprint in Asia. Pareteum is a leading cloud software platform company, which targets and enables new and growing sectors from IoT (Internet of Things), Data Analytics to Smart Cities and application-developer markets. Mr Mann has been a member of Pareteum Corporation's Strategic Advisory Board since March 2018.

'The M1 Board is confident that Manjot is well-suited to lead M1 in this increasingly competitive landscape, with his global perspective for future growth and unique multi-dimensional view of the industry, having managed an operator in a highly competitive market and led an MVNO across Europe, and more recently, as a leader in an industry helping connect consumers and devices across geographies with the development of products and solutions that promote open mobility.

Manjot has embedded innovation and digital strategies successfully into operations led by him. He is also noted for execution excellence, a caring leadership, satisfied customers and highly energized and motivated employees. The Board is delighted to welcome Manjot to the M1 group and we look forward to working with him,' said Mr Teoh.