VEON Shareholders Elect New Members to Its Board of Directors, Gennady Gazin Elected as Chairman of the Board

VEON Ltd (NASDAQ: VEON) (Euronext Amsterdam: VEON) a leading global provider of connectivity and internet services announces the results of the elections conducted at its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held earlier today 

Shareholders elected five new members to the Company's Board of Directors Hans Holger Albrecht Mariano De Beer Peter Derby Amos Genish and Stephen Pusey as well as seven previously serving directors: Osama Bedier Mikhail M Fridman Gennady Gazin Andrei Gusev Gunnar Holt Robert Jan van de Kraats and Alexander Pertsovsky

Following the election of the directors Gennady Gazin was appointed as Chairman of VEON's Board of Directors effective today 1 June 2020 

The Board would like to give special thanks to Ursula Burns for leading the Company through a key phase of its transformation as well as Guillaume Bacuvier Sir Julian Horn-Smith and Guy Laurence for their service in the Board

Commenting on his appointment Gennady said: I am delighted to join VEON as Chairman of the Board as the Company executes on its strategy to empower customer ambitions I would like to welcome the new Board members each bringing complementary skills and experience further positioning VEON to strengthen its core connectivity business while expanding into new areas such as digital financial services     

Ursula Burns outgoing Chairman of the Board said: The past three years with VEON has been an extraordinary experience and I am pleased with what we have been able to accomplish The Company is well positioned with a strong executive team leading our strategy and operations As I look ahead to a new decade for VEON I see a wealth of opportunities and a company that is better equipped than ever to serve the diversity of its stakeholders

Shareholders also approved the reappointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountants NV as the Company's independent auditor

Holders of approximately 9915% of the Company's shares were represented at the Annual General Meeting

Information on the New Directors

HANS HOLGER ALBRECHT currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Deezer He was born in Germany and studied law earning a PhD at the University of Bochum before undertaking a variety of management roles in the media technology and telecommunications industries including as Chief Executive of Millicom International Cellular SA (from 2012 to 2015) and Modern Times Group MTG AB (from 1998 to 2012)

MARIANO DE BEER was until 2019 Chief Commercial Digital Officer of Telefónica SA and a member of the Telefónica Group Executive Committee He previously held senior positions mainly at Telefonica and Microsoft in Latin America De Beer started his career at McKinsey & Co as a consultant He graduated from UADE (Universidad Argentina de la Empresa) and holds an MBA from Georgetown University

PETER DERBY is founding partner of Concinnity Advisors LP  After growing up in the United States he graduated with a Bachelor's degree from New York University in 1983 and then spent over a decade working in Russia His career in banking and finance has included roles at National Westminster Bank USA and Chase Manhattan Bank  In 1990 he established one of the first private banks in Russia DialogBank and in 1991 the first investment bank in Russia Troika Dialog  From 2003 to 2005 he served as the Managing Executive for Operations and Management Office of the Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission 

AMOS GENISH is the Senior Partner and Head of Digital Retail at BTG Pactual prior to which he held a number of senior positions in the telecommunications media and technology industries including as Chief Executive Officer of Telecom Italia and Telefonica Brasil  He started his career at KPMG in Israel in 1986 after graduating from the Tel Aviv University with a Bachelor's degree in Accounting and Economics

STEPHEN PUSEY is a Senior Advisor at Bridge Growth Partners prior to which he was the Group Chief Technology Officer at Vodafone from 2006 to 2015  He started his career at British Telecom in 1977 and held a variety of senior positions at Nortel Networks from 1982 to 2006 including as President for Europe from 2005

About VEON

VEON is a NASDAQ and Euronext Amsterdam-listed global provider of connectivity and internet services  For more information visit: wwwveoncom

Disclaimer

This press release contains forward-looking statements as the phrase is defined in Section 27A of the US Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended Forward-looking statements are not historical facts and include statements relating to among other things expectations regarding management plans and the ability to successfully execute operating model governance and development plans Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties many of which VEON cannot predict with accuracy and some of which VEON might not even anticipate The forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of the date of this release VEON does not undertake to publicly update except as required by US federal securities laws any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after such date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events Furthermore elements of this release contain or may contain inside information as defined under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014

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