COAI announced the election of its new leadership for the term 2015-16. Himanshu Kapania, MD, Idea Cellular Ltd. has been elected as the Chairman and Gopal Vittal, Joint Managing Director and CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel Limited, has been elected as the Vice-Chairman. COAI also designated its Executive Council for the new term at the meeting.
Himanshu Kapania has been the Managing Director of Idea Cellular since April 2011. Mr. Kapania has rich experience of over two decades where he has seen the Indian telecom industry start from a two player market in the early 90s, to the hyper competition of today with a dozen global mobile operators, which has made India the world’s 2nd largest telecom market. He spearheaded Idea Cellular Ltd. to be one of top 3 telecom players and also serves on the board of Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt. Ltd. (ABMCPL), the strategic advisory unit of the US$ 40 billion Aditya Birla Group. He is an alumnus of Birla Institute of Technology (Mesra), and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Gopal Vittal, JointManaging Director and CEO (India and South Asia) of Bharti Airtel Limited,has been elected as the Vice Chairman.Mr. Vittal has a vast experience of 25 years in senior leadership positions in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and Telecom industries. Mr.Vittal is an alumnus of Madras Christian College and the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.
Rajan S. Mathews, Director General, COAI, extended his heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Marten Pieters, the outgoing Chairman of COAI for the bold, courageous and excellent leadership provided by him through one of the most challenging periods for the Indian Telecom sector. He congratulated and welcomed Mr. Himanshu Kapaniaand Mr. Gopal Vittal for their new leadership positions in COAI for the coming term.
