Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said Manoj Kohli will step down as managing director & CEO (International) of the telecom service provider. He will look after non-telecom business of Bharti Enterprises in a new role.
This is as per a major restructuring of Bharti Enterprises. This also means that Bharti Airtel will have a lean organizational structure under Gopal Vittal in India and Christian de Faria in Africa.
From 1 April 2014, the telecom veteran, who moved to India recently from Africa, will have a new role to play. He will be the managing director of Bharti Enterprises to lead all non-telecom businesses of the group – Retail, Insurance, Food & Agri, Realty and others, and work closely with the respective MD/ CEOs.
This means, Kohli is completely moving out of daily operations of telecom business.
Manoj will also be responsible for business Development, corporate and shareholder relations on a group wide basis.
In addition, Manoj will serve on various Bharti boards including Airtel and be the chairman of Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) that owns Airtel’s African operations.
Christian de Faria will be appointed by Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) as the managing director and CEO (Africa), and will assume full operational responsibility of the company’s operations across 17 African geographies.
As part of restructuring, Bharti Airtel’s Bangladesh and Sri Lanka operations are being brought back under South Asia operations. Gopal Vittal currently Jt. MD & CEO (India) will now be the managing director and CEO (India & South Asia). Earlier, Bharti Airtel’s Bangladesh and Sri Lanka operations were part of the Africa business.
Under the new structure, the Bharti Corporate Office will be focused on and deal with matters of governance. Accordingly, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman, Bharti Enterprises; three vice chairmen, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Rajan Bharti Mittal and Akhil Gupta, along with managing director, Manoj Kohli and four Bharti veterans, will form the Bharti Governance Board (BGB).
Sunil Mittal, chairman, Bharti Enterprises, said, “This is another step towards transforming the group from entrepreneur-led professional-backed to a professional-led entrepreneur-backed one.”
Akhil Gupta will be designated as chairman of Bharti Infratel and vice chairman of Bharti Enterprises, and will serve on other Bharti boards.
DS Rawat, CEO Bharti Infratel has been appointed as MD and CEO of Bharti Infratel and is being inducted into the board of the company.
