Bharti

Sunil Bharti Mittal is the Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s foremost first-generation corporations with interests in Telecom, Space Communications, Digital Solutions, Real Estate and Hospitality. Bharti has joint ventures with several global partners like SingTel, SoftBank, the UK and French Governments, amongst others.

Bharti Airtel, the flagship company of Bharti Enterprises, is a leading telecommunications company with operations in 17 countries and ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally. Airtel is India’s largest integrated communications solutions provider and Sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest mobile operator, serving over half a billion customers across its operations.

Sunil is the Co-Chairman of Eutelsat Group, a global leader in satellite communications, delivering connectivity and broadcast services worldwide. Eutelsat Group is listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange, with Bharti as its single largest shareholder.

Sunil is a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honors, awarded to individuals for demonstrating distinguished services of high order. In 2024, he was conferred as an Honorary Knight of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) making him the first Indian citizen to receive this recognition from HM King Charles III. KBE is one of the most prestigious civil honors bestowed by the British Sovereign, in an honorary capacity to foreign nationals

He is a recipient of Harvard Business School’s Alumni Achievement Award, the highest alumni honor given by the institute. He is on Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council and has served on the Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School. Sunil received GSM Association’s prestigious Chairman’s Award and has been conferred Honorary Doctorates by several leading universities in India and Europe.

Sunil has served as the Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce and the Chairman of GSM Association concurrently from 2016 to 2018. He has been a Trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from 2009 to 2021. Sunil served as Chair of the B20 India Action Council on African Economic Integration during India’s G20 Presidency. He is also a serving Commissioner at the International Telecommunication Union/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council and a member of the Global Board of Advisors at the Council on Foreign Relations. Sunil has served on the boards of several multinational companies including Unilever PLC, Standard Chartered Bank PLC and SoftBank Corp.

Sunil is closely associated with spearheading the Indian industry’s global trade and investments initiatives. He has served as the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry and has served on the Prime Minister of India’s Council on Trade and Industry. He is Co-Chair of the ICT and Emerging Technologies Working Group of the India-US CEO Forum and a member of the India-UK, India-Japan, India-Sweden CEO Forums. He is Co-Chair of the India-Africa Business Council.

Sunil believes that a responsible corporate has a duty to give back to the community in which it operates. This belief has resulted in Bharti Airtel Foundation, which currently runs more than 173 Satya Bharti Schools and supports over 800 government schools under its Quality Support Program to ensure holistic education.

Rakesh Bharti Mittal is the Vice-Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s leading business groups with interests in Telecom Services, Digital Infrastructure & Devices, Space Communications, Financial Services, Processed Foods and Real Estate. He is the Chairman of Del Monte Foods and Managing Director of Bharti Land. Rakesh also serves on the Boards of Bharti Hexacom & Bharti AXA Life Insurance as a Non-Executive Director.

Bharti Airtel, the flagship company of Bharti Enterprises, is a global telecommunications company with operations in 17 countries and ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally. One of the largest integrated telecom providers in India and Sub-Saharan Africa, Bharti Airtel serves over half a billion customers across its operations.

Rakesh served as the President of CII for the year 2018-19. He is the Co-Chair of the India-Uzbekistan Business Council. Rakesh is also a member of the India-UK CEO Forum, CII Australia-India Business Champions, India-Japan Business Leaders’ Forum and the India-Pakistan Joint Business Forum. He is a Life Member of Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and a Member of the Founding Circle of Centre for Social and Economic Progress.

A passionate advocate for quality education, Rakesh is actively engaged in enhancing school and higher education through multiple roles. He is a member of the Board at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Chairman of the ISB Mohali Campus Advisory Board and Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Bharti Institute of Public Policy. Additionally, he is a Member of the Board of Trustees and the Governing Body Member at Plaksha University. Rakesh is the Co-Chairman of the Advisory Board of Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology & Management at IIT Delhi and has served as a Member of the All India Board of Studies for Post-Graduate Education & Research in Engineering & Technology (AIB-PGERT).

Rakesh Bharti Mittal is a strong advocate of supporting the cause of quality education and uplifting vulnerable sections of society. He is the Chairman of the Governing Council of Sat Paul Mittal School, Chairman of Satya School and the Founder Chairman of Horizon School of Excellence that is focused on providing free quality education in Ludhiana. Rakesh is also the Co-Chairman of the group’s philanthropic arm, Bharti Airtel Foundation. The Foundation currently operates 164 Satya Bharti Schools in 4 States providing free, quality education to 37,000 children.. So far, it has partnered with over 28,000 governments schools under the Quality Support Program and engaged in large scale initiatives with various State Governments. Through its concerted efforts, Bharti Foundation has benefitted nearly 3 million children since its inception having reached more than 6 million beneficiaries including children, teachers, parents and rural communities in 18 States and UTs.

Rakesh has been awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law by Newcastle University, UK and an Honorary Doctorate in Business Management by XIM University, India. He has served as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Sierra Leone in India from 2014 to 2020. He is a recipient of the Udyog Ratna Award 2023 from the Panjab University, the prestigious ‘Horasis – Indian Business Leader of the Year 2016 Award’ and ‘Institute of Engineers Award 2004’. He has received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ from S.C.D. College, Ludhiana and was recognized as a Distinguished Alumni of J.C. Bose University of Science & Technology, YMCA, Faridabad.

Rajan Bharti Mittal is the Vice-Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s leading conglomerates with diversified interests in Telecom, Space Communications, Digital Solutions, Financial Services, Real Estate, in addition to other ventures. Bharti has joint ventures with several global leaders: Singtel, SoftBank, the UK and French Government amongst others. Rajan is also a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of Bharti Airtel and Indus Towers along with being Managing Director at Bharti Land.

Bharti Airtel, the flagship company of Bharti Enterprises, is a global telecommunications company with operations in 17 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its mobile network covers a population of over two billion people. Airtel is India’s largest integrated telecom provider and the second largest mobile operator in Sub-Saharan Africa. Airtel serves nearly half a billion customers across its operations.

Born in 1960, Rajan joined Bharti Enterprises after graduating from Panjab University. An alumnus of Harvard Business School, he is actively involved in overseeing the activities of the group at the corporate level. With his rich experience in the marketing function, he is also involved in many of the new business ventures of the Group.

Rajan serves as a member of several industry associations and policymaking bodies. He is currently an Honorary Member at the Board of Trustees of Brookings Institution, the world’s oldest and most prestigious think tank and a member of the President’s Council on International Activities (PCIA), Yale University. Additionally, he is an Independent Director on the Boards of companies like Marico and Global Health Limited.

Rajan is amongst the Champions of EDISON Alliance at the World Economic Forum (WEF) - a cross-sector platform to accelerate collaborative action for digital inclusion. Rajan is a leading member of the WEF initiative on Alliance of CEO Climate Action Leaders India - a high-level platform for business leaders to support concrete plans and ideas to step up India’s climate action and green transition efforts. He is also a member of the India-Singapore CEO Forum.

He served as the President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for the year 2009 - 2010 and is currently a Member of its Executive & Steering Committees. He was also President of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) India in 2012-13. Rajan has been the President of Association of Basic Telecom Operators (now known as Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India - AUSPI) for 1999-2000.

Rajan has been honored with the “Indian Business Leader of the Year Award 2011” by Horasis, The Global Visions Community and has also been awarded the “Leonardo International Prize 2012” by Comitato Leonardo, the Italian Quality Committee.

Akhil Gupta is the Vice Chairman of Bharti Enterprises. He has played a pivotal role in Bharti’s phenomenal growth right since inception - both organically and by way of various acquisitions. He has led the formation of various partnerships for Bharti with leading international operators like British Telecom, Telecom Italia, Singapore Telecom and Vodafone in addition to induction of leading financial investors like Warburg Pincus, Temasek, KKR, Qatar Foundation Endowment, AIF and Sequoia among many other Private Equity funds. He has also been instrumental in raising several billion dollars by way of project finance for the Group over the years from global banks, bond markets and Export Credit Agencies (ECAs).

He has conceptualized and implemented the transformational initiatives that include the outsourcing deals undertaken by the group in the areas of Information Technology (IT) with IBM and Network Management. He has also been responsible for the separation of passive mobile infrastructure and forming Indus Towers - a Joint Venture with Vodafone and Idea, which is one of the largest tower companies in the world and is a unique example of collaborating at the backend while competing at the front end.

In 2010, he was instrumental in the acquisition of Zain Group’s mobile operations in 15 countries across Africa.

He has also spearheaded the successful public listings of Bharti Airtel (2002), Bharti Infratel (2012) and Airtel Africa (2019) and has been instrumental in introducing Global benchmarks like full Quarterly audits and transparent Quarterly reports to provide all relevant information to investors & stakeholders. Consequently, Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel have been constantly awarded highest ratings for Corporate Governance and are acknowledged globally for highest standards of ethics.

He is President Emeritus of TSSC (Telecom Sector Skill Council), Patron Member and Ex-Chairman of DIPA (Digital Infrastructure Providers Association), member of CII National Committee on Telecom & Broadband, member of CII Task Force on Insolvency and Bankruptcy and has been a member of the Advisory Committee on Service Providers of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India and Sub Committee of Insolvency Law Committee, Government of India.

He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bharti AXA Life Insurance Ltd. and a Board member of Eutelsat Communications. He is also on the board of a prominent E-Commerce company – Acevector and has played an active part in its turnaround. He is also on the board of 360 One Wam Ltd., a leading listed Wealth and Assessment management company.

He represents the Indian Telecom Industry and Bharti regularly at various forums and important seminars. He is a Chartered Accountant by qualification with over 40 years of professional experience. He has also done an “Advanced Management Program” at the Harvard Business School in the year 2002.

He is the recipient of numerous awards which include ET Telecom Lifetime Achievement Award, Voice&Data Lifetime Contribution Award, EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award as an Entrepreneur CEO, CA Lifetime Achievement Award by ICAI, CA Global Achiever Award by ICAI, Lifetime Achievement Award by Amity University, CEO of the Year award at National Telecom Awards, CA Business Achiever award by ICAI, Asia Corporate Dealmaker award at the Asia Pacific M&A Atlas Awards, Best CFO awards in multiple categories by CNBC–TV18 and induction to Hall of Fame by CFO India.

His book ‘Some Sizes Fit All’ on management has been published by Penguin Random House.

Mr. Gopal Vittal has served as the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Airtel Limited since 2013. In his role as CEO, he is responsible for defining the strategy and providing overall leadership to the operations of the company.

Under his leadership, Airtel has built a strong, diversified portfolio of businesses across Mobile, Homes, Enterprise and Digital services. His term as CEO has seen Airtel going from a revenue market share of 30 percent to 41 percent, a lifetime high, while propelling the market capitalization from 20 Billion to 100 Billion USD. This makes Airtel the 4^th most valuable company in India and 161st in the world.

He has also driven a comprehensive transformation of the business embedding digital at the core of the operations. The company has won numerous accolades in external forums as well for its business performance, corporate governance and people-centric policies.

Prior to Airtel, Gopal worked for twenty years with Hindustan Unilever across categories and countries. In his last role, he was responsible for the Home and Personal Care business and was on the board of Hindustan Unilever.

Gopal sits on the board of Bharti Airtel Limited and Indus Towers in addition to serving as Deputy Chair of GSMA, the premier global association of the mobile industry with over 1200 members across the world. He is an alumnus of Madras Christian and has completed his MBA from IIM, Kolkata.

Sunil joined Airtel Africa plc in October 2023 as the Digital Transformation Director reporting to the Group CEO before being appointed as the MD and Chief Executive Officer effective in July 2024 and operationally last April 2024. He first joined Airtel India on the 1st Dec 2016 to lead the DTH business and was a member of the Airtel Management Board. He was elevated to the role of Director-Market Operations on 1st December 2021 before moving to Dubai to take up another opportunity to lead the Africa Market.

Sunil has a rich experience of almost 30 years in the FMCG industry with Mondelez (erstwhile Cadbury). During his stint with Mondelez, Sunil has done several roles spanning multiple geographies in India, China and an APAC role based out of Singapore, and functions such as Sales and Distribution, Brand Management, Marketing and Media Research.

He was Country Head - Indonesia for Mondelez in his last role where he played a critical role in turning around the Indonesian business. Before his role as Country Head for Indonesia, Sunil performed a variety of roles across functions including India Sales Director between April 2011 to July 2015.

S.K. Sayal has been at the forefront of change and evolution in the Indian real estate market for forty years. At the helm of Bharti Real Estate since 2014, he has been steering a scalable business strategy to create value for the enterprise. Sayal has ably led the transformative development of marquee real estate projects by Bharti Real Estate.

A seasoned professional and an industry veteran, Sayal was the Founding Director and CEO of Alpha G:Corp from 2004 to 2014 and the Head of Operations for Mahindra/GESCO from 1993 to 2004. Earlier, he has worked with leading names in real estate like DLF and Ansals.

As a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS) UK, Sayal has led the implementation of new benchmarks in residential and commercial development. He has been instrumental in defining and establishing the widely used Real Estate Asset Management (REAM) model in the Indian Real Estate Industry. He is the author of ‘Inside Unreal Estate: A Journey through India’s Most Controversial Sector’, one of the most authoritative accounts of the evolution of the Indian real estate market.

Sayal has been honoured with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by White Page International and the World Federation of Marketing Professionals for outstanding contributions to the Real Estate sector, ‘Emerging India Business Baron Award’ at the Indo-Malaysia Economic Cooperation Seminar, ‘Most Enterprising CEO of the Year’ at the Real Estate Awards, ‘CEO of the Year’ at the World Brand Congress Global Awards for Brand Excellence and more.

Devendra Khanna (Deven) is the Joint Managing Director at Bharti Enterprises viz. at Bharti Group.

Deven has nearly 37 years of experience in finance and general management. Deven has been with the Group since 2004 and has held various leadership positions including Corporate Director - Finance and Group Director - Chairman's Office before moving into his current role as Joint Managing Director. He has spearheaded financial reporting, business planning, revenue assurance, taxation, risk management and a host of strategic projects including structuring initiatives. In addition to leading strategic initiatives, he continues to lead SME functions like Corporate Finance, Taxation, Legal, HR and Internal Assurance; and also looks after the Family Office.

Deven serves as a Director on the boards of Bharti Enterprises (Holdings) Private Limited, Bharti Telecom Limited, Bharti Hexacom Limited and Bharti Telemedia Limited. He has also served on the boards of Centum Learning Limited, Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Limited and Bharti AXA General Insurance Company Limited.

Earlier, Deven worked with Triveni Engineering & Industries Limited as the Chief Financial Officer for a business portfolio including sugar, steam turbines, sugar machinery, water treatment, micro hydel and oil drilling.

Deven is a commerce graduate from Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Delhi University and is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

Harjeet is a part of Bharti Management Board and drives the strategic aspects of businesses, across Bharti Airtel & other group businesses, by focusing on Strategy, business development, inorganic build-outs, M&A, capital allocation, partnerships, strategic capital sources, corporate finance, capital structure, equity, investor management (private & public), investments, risk management. He also plays the role of Business Sponsor driving core delivery & value creation for Airtel payments bank, Airtel money Africa, consumer & real estate businesses of the group.

Starting as a corporate & investment banker & finance professional leading into business roles, Harjeet has ~27 years of work experience. As the Jt Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises, Harjeet also serves as a Director on the Boards of Bharti Enterprises Limited, Indus Towers, Nxtra Data Centers, Airtel Payments Bank India, Airtel Money Africa, Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Limited, Bharti Realty Limited, Del Monte Foods India, Bharti Land amongst others.

Prior to this role, Harjeet has served as Group Director for Airtel and Bharti group; Director - Finance Bharti group, CFO - Bharti Enterprises, Group Treasurer and Head of Investor Relation of Bharti Airtel and has worked on several strategic projects for Bharti group, across strategic expansion, large scale acquisitions, divestitures, IPO, QIP, Rights, buybacks, secondary sales, capital markets debt, equity market – across listed companies (Airtel/Infratel/Airtel Africa Plc) & including business/franchise deals in Insurance, foods, real estate et al.

Prior to joining Bharti group in late 2008, he had 12 years of corporate & investment banking experience at Citibank, across business build-outs, product head, structuring, sales, relationship management, capital markets & full P&L based market management. Working across diverse industries and businesses he has been a trusted advisor for corporate clients across their strategic intervention needs, organic and or inorganic and across value curation, creation, enhancement and or illumination.

Apart from a leadership program from Harvard in 2014, Harjeet is an MBA in Finance from University of Delhi, Faculty of Management Studies and a Mechanical Engineer from Delhi College of Engineering, University of Delhi.

Individually, early stage investing is also an equal passion for Harjeet. He is also part of India Angel Network and other early stage platforms, mostly as investor and selectively as mentor as well. And along with his wife Shilpa, serves with SVP India, a philanthropy organisation, as the Chapter Chairperson for SVP’s Delhi NCR Chapter.

Mr. J.S. Deepak is the Group Director, International Strategy and Public Policy at Bharti Enterprises.

A retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Deepak has many decades of experience working for Government of India, especially in economic Ministries including as Secretary Telecom & IT, and Ambassador of India to the World Trade Organization (WTO) at Geneva.

Deepak served as a Secretary and Joint Secretary, Telecom, Government of India, wherein he was responsible for the formulation of telecom policy and reforms in the sector. He spearheaded various initiatives for improving telecom regulation and led the team that designed and conducted the first spectrum auction in India in 2010. He also pioneered harmonization, sharing and trading of spectrum in the country.

As Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Deepak led India's efforts in Internet Governance and anchored the Digital India Programme and facilitation of IT/ITeS sector. He was also involved in Aadhar enrolment and expanding its use for improvement of governance including for e-KYC in the telecom sector.

He was India’s Chief Negotiator at the WTO, for the RCEP agreement and the India-EU Free Trade Agreement and led trade negotiations in agriculture, manufactured products, services, rules, tariffs and subsidies and articulated the Indian position on e-commerce and investment. As Joint and Additional Secretary Commerce, Government of India (GOI), he dealt with trade policy, export promotion of electronics, pharmaceuticals, tea, coffee, spices, agriculture products and services.

Deepak is the Chairman of Bharti Hexacom Limited, a listed group company, that provides services in Rajasthan and the North-East under the Airtel brand. He also serves on the Board of Indus Towers Limited, the Governing Council of the Bharti Institute of Public Policy, ISB Mohali and the Bharti Airtel Foundation.

Deepak is an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad and has been invited to lecture on subjects related to management, trade, telecom and communication at various leading institutions and international fora.

Mamta Saikia is the Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Airtel Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises. She has over 28 years of experience in the development sector. In her current role as the CEO, Mamta is responsible for providing strategic direction and operational leadership to Foundation’s development programs.

Prior to joining Bharti Airtel Foundation, Mamta worked with CRY – Child Rights & You, where she held various positions including Member of the Management Committee, Head – Resource Mobilization and Head – Global Operations. She also served as the Chair of SAFRG and been on the Board of Resource Alliance, a UK based organization.

Mamta has been honored by AACSB International (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, USA) as one of its ‘2019 Class of Influential Leaders’. She was among the 100 Women Achievers of India (2015-16) under an initiative by the Ministry of Women & Child Development and was felicitated by the Hon’ble President of India. She has been conferred the Karmaveer Puraskaar: National Citizen Awards for Social Justice & Action. Mamta has been recognised as India’s Most Trusted Leader by Great Place to Work and has been conferred with the prestigious Mahatma Award for Leadership in Social Responsibility, Social Good and Impact 2023. She had also been nominated as an eminent person to the Board of Governors of Sainik School Society by the Ministry of Defense.