Bharti Airtel has promoted Christian Defaria, managing director and CEO of Airtel Africa, to executive chairman. It has also appointed Raghunath Mandava as COO of its African business, and announced plans for a new cluster-based management.
Bharti Airtel (NSE:BHARTIARTL) has promoted Christian Defaria, managing director and CEO of Airtel Africa, to executive chairman. It has also appointed Raghunath Mandava as COO of its African business, and announced plans for a new cluster-based management.
In his new role, Defaria will continue to support the vision of Airtel Africa and lead all matters relating to legal, regulatory affairs, shareholders and M&A, the company said.
Mandava, who is currently director of customer experience for India and South Asia, will relocate to Nairobi and be fully responsible for commercial operations.
Bharti chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal credited Defaria with “streamlining the operations, strengthening the leadership teams across Africa while enhancing the image of Airtel brand across Africa”.
“We remain fully committed to Africa and will continue to invest in the growth of our operations,” he added.
Bharti recently agreed to sell its Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso operations to Orange (EPA:ORA), which is also buying Cellcom Liberia and Tigo DRC. One executive with exposure to Africa said he expected the Indian-owned company to “sell a few more assets when it’s ready”.
As per the new cluster-based organisation design, Airtel said its 15 African opcos would be classified into eight clusters: Nigeria-Ghana; DRC-Congo Brazzaville; Gabon-Madagascar; Uganda-Seychelles; Tanzania-Rwanda; Zambia-Malawi; Chad-Niger; and Kenya. All cluster heads will report to Mandava.
