PLDT and Smart’s Nazareno nominated as CEO of the Year
PLDT and Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) president and chief executive officer Napoleon L. Nazareno has been nominated as CEO of the Year in two international awards programs for his contributions to the telecommunications industry.
Nazareno was shortlisted both in the Telecom Asia Awards organized by the Hong Kongbased industry magazine, and Asia Communication Awards (ACA) organized by London-based publication Total Telecom. He already won Telecom Asia Awards’ CEO of the Year distinction in 2012.
Other contenders for the awards include David Thodey of Telstra, Hiroo Unoura of NTT Holdings, Sung Min Ha of SK Telecom, and Saleh Abdooli of Etisalat.
The Telecom Asia Awards CEO of the Year will be selected by an independent panel of industry experts, “who will cast votes on the basis of innovation, financial performance, technology, market leadership, and corporate governance.” Awarding will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia on May 20.
The ACA winner will be determined by an industry vote and assessment by a panel of judges, and will be announced on June 3 in Singapore.
Under Nazareno’s leadership, Smart continues to be the number one mobile service provider in the Philippines, in terms of both subscriber base and revenues. As of end-2014, Smart had over 56.4 million subscribers in its cellular and broadband services.
Together with Sun Cellular, the two wireless units of PLDT remain the undisputed leaders of the industry with 72.8 million cellular and broadband subscribers. The two companies also posted combined revenues of P115 billion as of end-2014, about 47 percent higher than the competition’s.
Revenue growth is being led by mobile data usage, which jumped by 63 percent in 2014. Data adoption is being stimulated among Smart, Sun, and Talk ‘N Text prepaid subscribers through Free Internet bundles, the Safezone platform which allows free access to selected applications, and Facebook’s Internet.org which gives free access to 24 websites.
The PLDT group is encouraging mobile data usage through a wide and growing array of music, video, and other multimedia services.