New Delhi, July 15, 2007: Bharti Airtel, announced the appointment of Syed Safawi as Executive Director, Northern Hub. He will report to Sanjay Kapoor, President, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel.

Syed Safawi will succeed Sanjay Nandrajog, who has taken over as Executive Director, International Operations & Managed Services, for Bharti Airtel. Sanjay Nandrajog, will report to Sanjay Kapoor, President, Mobility, who is responsible for International Operations, along with India, for Mobile Services.

Syed brings with him more than 19 years of rich experience across various aspects of general management, marketing and sales. He has spent over 11 years with Coca Cola International, working across geographies in India and Asia. During his tenure at Coca Cola, Syed was responsible for conceptualizing, leading and piloting many marketing forays of the company. His last assignment was as the Country Manager & Chief Executive Officer, Indochina, responsible for the Coca-Cola operations in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as well as strategic responsibility for Malaysia.

Sanjay Kapoor, President, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel said, “Syed brings with him a wealth of experience from his earlier assignments. With Telecom in India fast becoming as accessible and service-focused as a FMCG set up, I am confident that he will contribute significantly to take Airtel to newer heights.”

Syed Safawi will play a key role in leading Airtel’s initiatives in all of the company's north circles - Delhi and NCR, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. His focus will be to not only increase the growth and revenue from these markets but also to enhance the organization's positioning amongst its customers and key stakeholders.

During the initial years of his career, Syed has handled key roles in the sales function with TTK Group, India and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, India. Syed is a Masters in Business Management from IRMA and an advanced management diploma from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, US.
 

Bharti Airtel is structured into three strategic business units - Mobile services, Broadband & Telephone (B&T) services and Enterprise services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles. The B&T business provides broadband & telephone services in 94 cities. The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national & international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Airtel’s high-speed optic fibre network currently spans over 40,000 kms covering all the major cities in the country. The company has two international landing stations in Chennai that connects two submarine cable systems - i2i to Singapore and SEA-ME-WE-4 to Europe. For more information, visit www.bhartiairtel.in