Robi CEO appointed as director of Nepal’s leading operator Ncell

The board of directors of Nepal's number one mobile phone operator Ncell Pvt Ltd has recently approved the appointment of Robi Managing Director and CEO Mahtab Uddin Ahmed as its director. 

The appointment allows Mahtab to share his expertise in digital leadership with Ncell while he leads from the front Bangladesh's digital transformation as the managing director and CEO of Robi. 

The appointment also signifies the growing reliance of Bangladeshi talents in Axiata Group, which holds controlling stakes in both Robi in Bangladesh and Ncell in Nepal, a Robi press release said on Monday.  

Within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and South Asia, Axiata Group has controlling stakes in market leading mobile and fixed operators in the region, including Celcom in Malaysia, XL in Indonesia, Dialog in Sri Lanka, Robi in Bangladesh, Smart in Cambodia and Ncell in Nepal. 

Mahtab became the managing director and CEO of Robi on November 1, 2016. He is Robi's first homegrown CEO. 

He joined Robi in September 2010 as the chief financial officer and held the position till 2014. He was then appointed as the chief operating officer from April 2014 to March 2016. 

Before joining Robi, Mahtab spent 17 years of his career in Unilever where he held various business and finance leadership positions, including the post of finance director and group financial controller in various operating companies like Unilever Pakistan, Unilever Arabia and Unilever Bangladesh.

An alumnus of Harvard Business School, Mahtab obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting from the University of Dhaka. He is also an FCMA and CGMA of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA, UK). 

Mahtab is currently the president of the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh and an executive committee member of the Foreign Investors' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). 

He is also a member of the National Council of Institute of Cost and Management Accountant of Bangladesh (ICMAB).