Company Press Release:
 
FLAG TELECOM gears for enhancing leadership
in Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa
Mumbai, September 1, 2006: In line with the objective of furthering global leadership and leading the next phase of growth in globally managed services and solutions, Reliance Communications’ FLAG Telecom, a leading provider of international wholesale network transport and communications services, today announced the appointment of two key industry figures in its Executive Team. The appointments strengthen the Executive Team and impart a leading edge to the company’s ambitious plans for network expansion and service development.

Mark Heraghty joins FLAG Telecom as Senior Vice President, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Mark has extensive 14 years experience in the international telecommunications industry. Prior to joining FLAG, Mark was the Chief Executive Officer of Cable & Wire Europe, responsible for the Cable &Wireless European business. During his tenure at C&W he spearheaded the integration of over 20 IP businesses acquired by C&W. He has also held the position of MD of C&W’s Service Provider business, which recorded revenues in excess of £1.1bn (Rs 50 billion). Mark holds degrees in MBA from University of Warwick, England and Mech. Engineering from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.

Bhaskar Thyagarajan joins FLAG as Vice President, Marketing and lead the Product Management & Development, Partners & Alliance Program and Customer Solutions functions of the company.  Bhaskar comes to FLAG after an 18 years stint with Sprint, and was recently the Executive Director, Global Data Product Sales for Asia, India, Europe and Middle East & Africa. Bhaskar brings with him over 17 years experience in sales, partnership management, business development, global network planning and design in the global telecom market. Primarily responsible for the wholesale and enterprise market segments, he was a key player in building and marketing Sprint's Tier 1 global IP network and product suite. Bhaskar holds degrees in MBA degree (University of Missouri, USA) and Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Kolkata University) and a Master’s diploma in Industrial Management (IIT-Kharagpur).

Punit Garg, President - FLAG Telecom said, “Induction of Mark in FLAG’s Executive team would further boost the expansion of our service portfolio, including a suite of outsourcing services and IP-based managed services, aimed at the fast-growing telecom service provider market. Their rich and vast experience would also contribute to our ambitious plans of expanding network reach through carrier partnerships and new infrastructure developments, such as the Middle East FALCON network”.
 


About FLAG Telecom
FLAG Telecom is a member of the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group whose interests span a variety of sectors including communications, financial services, energy, infrastructure and entertainment. FLAG Telecom has an established customer base of over 200 leading operators, including all of the top ten international carriers. FLAG owns and manages an extensive optical fibre network spanning four continents, connecting key business markets in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the USA. FLAG also owns and operates a low-latency, global MPLS-based IP network, which connects most of the world's principal international Internet exchanges. FLAG offers a focused range of global products, including global bandwidth, IP, Internet, Ethernet and Co-location services.

About Reliance Communications
Reliance Communications, a member of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (Reliance ADA Group), is India's foremost integrated telecommunications company with over 23 million Indian and 500,000 global individual consumers. Reliance Communications corporate clientele includes 600 Indian and 250 multinational corporations, and - through subsidiary FLAG Telecom - over 200 global carriers.

The company has a pan-Indian, next generation, integrated (wireless and wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network that is capable of supporting best-of-class services spanning the entire Infocomm value chain.