Axiata Group today appointed three senior executives to strengthen its management team as it expands its footprint in Asia and steps up efforts to improve efficiency across the group.

Hans Wijayasuriya, CEO of Dialog in Sri Lanka, takes on the additional role of regional CEO for the group as it expands across South Asia. Its operations in that region include Dialog, Robi in Bangladesh, Idea in India and Ncell in Nepal, once the acquisition is finalised.

Dominic Arena, previously managing director of AEC Advisory, was named chief strategy officer for the group. He replaces René Werner, who has held a dual role as chief strategy officer for the group and for Celcom in Malaysia and will now focus fully on Celcom.

Mohd Asri Hassan was appointed group head of business operations with a focus on enhancing the performance of Axiata’s new business units, Qorus Alliance, and managing the performance of its operating companies and coordinating group-wide efforts.

Wijayasuriya joined Dialog’s founding management team in 1994 and has been Dialog CEO since 1997. He also served as the founding CEO of Axiata Digital Services from 2012 to 2014 and continues to serve on the board of the business unit and several of its digital venture’s subsidiaries.

Arena has more than 20 years of telecoms industry experience. Prior to AEC, a Singapore-based strategic and corporate advisory firm, he was a managing partner at Value Partners and a director with KPMG Advisory.

Hassan previously held an entrepreneurial role as strategic partner with Capital Partners, an established South Asia private equity company. He has more than 27 years of experience in the IT and telecom industries and was country president of Motorola Malaysia from 2006 to 2008.

Axiata CEO Jamaludin Ibrahim claimed that after close to a decade of leadership development across the group, it is now in “a unique position to attract high-calibre industry professionals to take up leadership positions”.