Media storm batters troubled Telenor

As reasons for a lack of confidence in Telenor CEO Sigve Brekke continued to leak out of the company this week, one of its major employee organizations tried to head off the media storm swirling around both Brekke and board leader Gunn Wærsted, according to www.newsinenglish.no. 
It called on Telenor’s divided board of directors to retain Brekke as CEO as they huddled for the second of a two-day-long board meeting on Tuesday.
A power struggle at Telenor has dominated Norwegian media for the past week, like here on NRK's national nightly newscasts. 
The drama surrounding Brekke at the highest levels of one of Norway’s biggest companies seemed to be heading for a climax. Reports of mounting claims against him, regarding trouble at Telenor operations in Asia, came on top of concerns expressed by top politicians. Since the state owns 54 percent of Telenor’s stock, the government minister in charge of it was being asked to clarify her role in what’s become a major power struggle between the leader of Telenor’s board and its CEO. Both are still relatively new in their posts, with Wærsted appointed with a mandate to “clean up” Telenor after years of management conflicts and a huge corruption scandal. She reportedly has developed deep concerns about Brekke and how he did his job while head of Telenor’s Asia operations.
On Tuesday morning, a top employee representative from the labour organization Tekna Telenor, was on Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK)’s national news radio saying that the employees support Brekke. “Tekna Telenor wants Brekke to continue as chief executive, so that the work to secure Telenor’s future can continue,” said Jan Otto Eriksen of Tekna.
Eriksen told NRK that his organization “felt it was right to come out” with its show of support for Brekke after the media storm around Telenor in recent days. They think it would be wrong for the board to fire Brekke since his tenure has been so short. “Sigve Brekke has, over the last year-and-a-half as Telenor’s CEO, worked in a goal-oriented manner to strengthen the company’s position in the digital development we’re in right now,” Eriksen said, calling it “a development that will influence competition in the telecoms branch more and more.”
He added that since changes occur quickly, replacing the CEO in Telenor now could cause the company to lose its momentum. “Our professional organization Tekna has confidence in Sigve Brekke and believes he is the right person as CEO for Telenor in the future,” Eriksen said. Brekke has also long been popular among employees of the international company abroad.
NRK reported that Tekna and several other organizations representing thousands of Telenor employees in Norway also retain confidence in Brekke but were reluctant to go public with it. “We just want things to settle down,” one employee representative told NRK. “There’s too much turbulence and speculation now, and we just want to lay low.”
The employee confidence in Brekke comes despite more detailed media accounts in recent days about what reportedly led board leader Wærsted to tell Brekke in August that she thought he should resign. Her concerns were based on a series of “irregularities” that occurred at Telenor subsidiaries in Thailand, Bangladesh and India while Brekke headed Telenor’s Asian operations.

Media storm batters troubled Telenor

As reasons for a lack of confidence in Telenor CEO Sigve Brekke continued to leak out of the company this week, one of its major employee organizations tried to head off the media storm swirling around both Brekke and board leader Gunn Wrsted, according to www.newsinenglish.no. It called on Telenors divided board of directors to retain Brekke as CEO as they huddled for the second of a two-day-long board meeting on Tuesday. A power struggle at Telenor has dominated Norwegian media for the past week, like here on NRKs national nightly newscasts. The drama surrounding Brekke at the highest levels of one of Norways biggest companies seemed to be heading for a climax. Reports of mounting claims against him, regarding trouble at Telenor operations in Asia, came on top of concerns expressed by top politicians. Since the state owns 54 percent of Telenors stock, the government minister in charge of it was being asked to clarify her role in whats become a major power struggle between the leader of Telenors board and its CEO. Both are still relatively new in their posts, with Wrsted appointed with a mandate to clean up Telenor after years of management conflicts and a huge corruption scandal. She reportedly has developed deep concerns about Brekke and how he did his job while head of Telenors Asia operations. On Tuesday morning, a top employee representative from the labour organization Tekna Telenor, was on Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK)s national news radio saying that the employees support Brekke. Tekna Telenor wants Brekke to continue as chief executive, so that the work to secure Telenors future can continue, said Jan Otto Eriksen of Tekna. Eriksen told NRK that his organization felt it was right to come out with its show of support for Brekke after the media storm around Telenor in recent days. They think it would be wrong for the board to fire Brekke since his tenure has been so short. Sigve Brekke has, over the last year-and-a-half as Telenors CEO, worked in a goal-oriented manner to strengthen the companys position in the digital development were in right now, Eriksen said, calling it a development that will influence competition in the telecoms branch more and more. He added that since changes occur quickly, replacing the CEO in Telenor now could cause the company to lose its momentum. Our professional organization Tekna has confidence in Sigve Brekke and believes he is the right person as CEO for Telenor in the future, Eriksen said. Brekke has also long been popular among employees of the international company abroad. NRK reported that Tekna and several other organizations representing thousands of Telenor employees in Norway also retain confidence in Brekke but were reluctant to go public with it. We just want things to settle down, one employee representative told NRK. Theres too much turbulence and speculation now, and we just want to lay low. The employee confidence in Brekke comes despite more detailed media accounts in recent days about what reportedly led board leader Wrsted to tell Brekke in August that she thought he should resign. Her concerns were based on a series of irregularities that occurred at Telenor subsidiaries in Thailand, Bangladesh and India while Brekke headed Telenors Asian operations.