Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (Digi) this week welcomed eight (8) bright young Malaysian talents as its first group of Digi CXO Apprentices.
Top row: Praveen Rajan, Chief Digital Officer, Devraj Sathivelu, Loh Keh Jiat, Chief Marketing Officer, Wendy Liang, Albern Murty, Chief Executive Officer, Low Hui Qi, Eugene Teh, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Joel Thum, Haroon Bhatti, Chief HR Officer, Nicole Wong
Bottom row: Justin Yong, Orsolya Sekerka, Chief IT Officer, Andrea Ong, Wan Nur Alia
These individuals started their jobs on Monday, 1 August 2016, and are now each apprenticing with one of the eight Digi Chiefs (CXOs). As apprentices, Digi said they will receive exclusive mentorship from their respective CXOs, not only shadowing their daily schedules but having direct exposure to the inner-workings of Digi’s business and hands-on involvement in projects spearheaded by these CXOs every day for the next one year.
| Inspiring Apprentices | Age | Graduated from… | Apprentice to… | |
| 1. | Wendy Liang | 23 | University of Nottingham | Albern Murty, Chief Executive Officer |
| 2. | Joel Thum | 23 | Sunway University | Karl Erik Broten, Chief Finance Officer |
| 3. | Nicole Wong | 22 | Sunway University | Loh Keh Jiat, Chief Marketing Officer |
| 4. | Andrea Ong | 22 | Taylor’s University | Praveen Rajan, Chief Digital Officer |
| 5. | Devraj Sathivelu | 22 | University of Nottingham | Eugene Teh, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer |
| 6. | Justin Yong | 26 | University Of Hertfordshire | Orsolya Sekerka, Chief IT Officer |
| 7. | Low Hui Qi | 23 | Australian National University | Kesavan Sivabalan, Chief Network Officer |
| 8. | Wan Nur Alia | 23 | Multimedia University | Haroon Bhatti, Chief HR Officer |
The eight new recruits edged out a total of 880 other Malaysian applicants from Malaysia, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada to be Digi’s first batch of CXO apprentices. They were part of the 48 talents chosen to participate in the Freedom Challenge, where individuals went through a rigorous full-day business challenge. Of that, 24 individuals were then selected for the final phase of interviews with Digi’s CXOs.
According to Digi, the inspiring eight apprentices have an exciting year set before them, having the opportunity to experience:
- Accelerated learning and development giving apprentices a competitive edge at the start of their career.
- Front row seats to decision-making, driving business and digital ambitions.
- Direct CXO mentorship and guidance for one year.
- Global exposure to Telenor Group’s businesses across 13 markets in Asia and Europe.
“The big idea is to put our young talent on the path of accelerated learning early in their careers through intentional mentorship from C-level management, in order for them to become effective contributors and frontrunners in the organisation, driving a fresh new way of work and innovation when they graduate into their respective full-time roles thereafter,” said Haroon Bhatti, Digi’s Chief HR Officer.
“At the speed our industry is changing, we felt we needed a fast, agile, disruptive way to bring young talent through the developmental levels quickly and so we hacked (or put a new spin on) the run-of-the-mill management trainee programme from start to finish, from the way potential recruits were selected, to the way we assessed individuals during the Freedom Challenge, the CXO interviews and the apprenticeship format versus the typical rotation between departments for the first year of work,”
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