Having overseas investments in Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Montenegro, Austria, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, Telenor is one of the most widely spread telecoms groups in the world.

Telenor has separated its European and Asian units followed by appointment of Jan Edvard Thygesen and Arve Johansen as respective heads. In addition to these appointments, Thygesen and Johansen have joined the Telenor's group management team. Therefore, Telenor's eight-member group management became entirely male dominated.

Norwegian government has sharply reacted to this issue. On January 1 Norway enforced the first of its kind law in the world, which mandates all public limited companies' boards are to be composed of at least 40 percent of women within the next two years, or face closure.

54 percent state-owned Telenor, which reports to trade and industry ministry, evidently showed no respect to this law that has been enacted less than a fortnight before restructuring the board.

"It is clear that neither the board nor management (of Telenor) have received the signals that it is time to strive to achieve gender balance in management," said Norway's Minister of Trade and Industry Odd Eriksen Eriksen. He also called Telenor decision unwise while talking to Norwegian financial daily Dagens Næringsliv on January 11.

"We have concentrated on creating the best management team possible. Its current structure reflects this need," defended Telenor's spokesman Scott Engebrigtsen.