Akhil is the Deputy Group CEO & Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises and a Director of Bharti Airtel Limited. He has been closely associated with a range of strategic, financial, mergers and acquisitions and business performance issues of the group. He has spearheaded the transformational initiatives that include the outsourcing deals undertaken by the group in the areas of information technology (IT) with IBM, network management with Ericsson and Nokia and outsourcing of Call Centres management to leading international BPOs using common Nortel platform across India. He has also been responsible for conceptualizing and implementing the separation of passive mobile infrastructure and forming Indus Towers a Joint Venture with Vodafone and Idea, which has become a largest tower company in the world. With innovative thought leadership, he has been able to guide Airtel in becoming perhaps the lowest cost producer of minutes worldwide and ensuring that it provides very high ROE despite the lowest tariffs in the world.
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Akhil has played a pivotal role in Bharti’s phenomenal growth in a short span of ten years. He has been closely involved from the very beginning in the growth of Bharti in the telecommunication services sector – 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, Singapore Telecom and most recently Vodafone in addition to induction of financial investors like Warburg Pincus, Asia Infrastructure Fund and New York Life. He has been instrumental in raising several Billion Dollars by way of equity and project finance for the Group.
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He oversees the investor relations and corporate governance at Airtel and has built strong relationship with investors and analysts all over the world. He has been instrumental in introducing a Quarterly Report which is hailed as a benchmark in telecom industry for transparency and information. He has also been representing the Indian Telecom Industry and Bharti regularly at various forums and important seminars in India and abroad.
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He is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and has over 27 years of professional experience in industry. He has also done an “Advanced Management Program” at the Harvard Business School in the year 2002.
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In January 2009 Akhil was conferred the “CA Business Achiever Award”. The awards instituted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) acknowledges the Chartered Accountants in the industry who have demonstrated excellence in the way they conduct their profession, are exemplary role models in the industry and have created value to their company's stakeholders on a sustainable basis.
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During the year 2006, he won three awards at the first ‘CNBC TV18 CFO Awards for India’ hosted by Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone in UAE. The awards panel voted him as ‘Best CFO of the Year’ and ‘Best Performing CFO in the Telecommunications Sector’. In addition, Mr. Gupta won the ‘Best CFO of the Year - People's Choice Award’ Earlier during the year 2002 he was adjudged as the ‘CFO for the year for Mergers & Acquisitions’ by the Economic Intelligence Unit, India in association with American Express. |
