Veon Names New General Counsel From Beeline Russia Subsidiary

Veon Ltd., an Amsterdam-based telecommunications company, has named Victor Biryukov as its group general counsel starting Jan. 1.

Biryukov joins Veon from its subsidiary, Beeline Russia, which Veon in a statement called its largest operation. Biryukov was vice president for legal, government relations and compliance at Beeline.

He takes over from Scott Dresser, an American lawyer and former legal chief for Virgin Media who had been Veon’s group general counsel since August 2014.

The hire comes nearly four months after Veon said it agreed to sell its mobile network towers to a partner in Russia, Service-Telecom, for 70.7 billion rubles ($970 million). Under the deal, Service-Telecom agreed to acquire all of Veon’s National Tower Co. unit, Bloomberg News reported.

Biryukov, prior to working at Beeline, served as general counsel of Access Industries for Russia & CIS, and as managing director of Brunswick Rail Management. He holds a law degree from Moscow State Institute of International Relations and a Master’s of Law from Northwestern University, according to the statement.

The company announced in late October that Dresser would leave at the end of December but continue to be a strategic adviser to Veon’s chairman of the board.