The chief executive officer of Axiata Digital Services, Khairil Abdullah, has led the digital-services arm of Axiata Group Berhad since 2014. He oversees its core businesses, namely digital marketing, financial services and platforms, and multiple award-winning flagship brands such as Boost, Aspirasi, ADA and Apigate.

A University of Cambridge graduate with a Master’s in Engineering, Khairil spent more than 20 years working abroad before returning home to Malaysia. He spent most of his career at leading global management consultancy Bain & Company, where he was a partner. During his 15 years at Bain, he was posted to Germany, Australia, the US and the UK, and was known for helping clients in telecoms and other industries improve their strategic positions and operational performance. In 2008, he was posted to Singapore to help Bain grow its telecoms practice in the region.

He joined Axiata Group Berhad in 2012 as group chief maketing and operations officer before assuming the CEO role a couple of years later. He was named Technovator of 2020 by PC.com for Boost, which also won best e-wallet for MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises). In 2021, the digital micro-financing and micro-insurance service Aspirasi was awarded the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance 2020 Award (APICTA) in the finance and accounting solutions category.