By Bandula Sirimanna
Sri Lanka Telecom’s newest major shareholder, Maxis (through Global Telecommunications Holdings NV-GTH) is involved in a tug of war over the CEO’s post.

Informed sources said the government has offered the posts of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Finance Officer to Maxis but refused to part with the CEO’s post which Maxis’ want. This matter is expected to figure tomorrow during the first meeting of the new SLT board with four GTH representatives where the new shareholders agreement between GTH and the government is also likely to be discussed.

Under the previous agreement with NTT, the foreign partner was allowed to hold the CEO post. S.K Lal Ranjith, SLT’s Head of Corporate Strategy, assigned as the company spokesman, told The Sunday Times FT that the appointment of the CEO has not been finalized. He declined to comment further.
GTH which has 44.97 percent stake in SLT announced their four nominees to the SLT board, of which two - Shelley Geoffrey Williams and Jeffrey Jay Blatt – are here having individual discussons with the newly appointed 58 heads of divisions and eight chief officers, on the company structure.

A senior SLT official, who did not want to be named, said these discussions were to ascertain the responsibilities and suitability of these officers to fulfill their task. He said GTH was also sending another 6-member team by the end of the month to study the re-organisational structure.