Russia’s MTS has promoted Vyacheslav Nikolaev to the position of president and CEO, effective March 13 and for a period of three years.
Currently MTS first VP for customer experience, marketing and ecosystem development, he will replace Alexey Kornya, who has been recommended to be appointed first VP of MTS parent company Sistema.
Commenting on the development, Felix Evtushenkov, chairman of the MTS board of directors, said: “In his new role as MTS Group president & CEO, Vyacheslav Nikolaev will take on an ambitious task — strengthening MTS’s market position as a telecom-based ecosystem of digital services, thereby completing MTS’s comprehensive brand transformation. In addition, we regard it as equally important to further reinforce the company’s established leadership position within the highly competitive telecommunications market. Over the past several years, Vyacheslav has headed MTS’s efforts in marketing, customer experience, and ecosystem development, overseeing brand favourability as well as product and service quality. He has enabled the successful work of our product teams, while revamping the way we engage with customers and attracting leading international partners into the MTS ecosystem. With more than 15 years of experience at MTS, I am confident his professional acumen, strategic grasp of the industry — as well as the company’s ambitions and opportunities — will position him to further build on the achievements of his predecessors to increase shareholder value and lay a strong foundation for MTS’s continued successful development”.
Nikolaev joined MTS in 2004 and has served in a series of senior positions across marketing and commercial management. Prior to that, he worked as a supervising telecoms analyst, leading the sector research teams at Trust and Renaissance Capital.
He began his professional career in 1997 as a consultant at European Public Policy Advisers (UK) and J’son and Partners (Sweden).
