Yuriy Kurmaz has taken the position of Chief Executive Officer of Ukrtelecom in February 2014 having 25 years of experience in managing telcos’ operations. Under Yuriy’s leadership the company made its journey from a legacy incumbent to one of the leading ICT providers. During these years Yuriy kept the vector of innovations and sustainable development. Having modernized a big fraction of its copper networks Ukrtelecom secured its strong #1 position in the fixed telco market of Ukraine in terms of: total and Internet access revenue; coverage of Ukraine’s cities and villages with fixed internet access (ca. 4k settlements allover the country); length of fiber-optic lines rolled-out throughout Ukraine (more than 80k km). Since the beginning of the full-scale russian military aggression against Ukraine in February 2022 Yuriy together with his team has been ensuring the continuance of Ukrtelecom’s business operations, network resilience and steadfast provision of services to the Armed forces of Ukraine, critical infrastructure facilities, government bodies, businesses and households. Before joining Ukrtelecom, Yuriy occupied different C-level positions at Astelit, one of three biggest Ukrainian MNOs. He joined the company as Vice President of Commercial Operations in 2003. Following the launch of the life:) trademark (later rebranded to lifecell) in 2004, he was appointed to a position of a Director of Customer Relations. Under his direction, the mobile operator implemented a customer service system that received high praise from subscribers and prestigious international awards. Subsequently, Yuriy took a position of a Director of Corporate Relations where he successfully managed relations with regulatory and government bodies, inter-operator relations as well as corporate legal affairs. Prior to his career at Astelit, from 1997 to 2003, Yuriy held a position of Deputy General Director and later General Director of Ukrainian Radio Systems (Wellcom, which later merged with Kyivstar).