Srikanth Balachander joined Bharti Airtel as CFO in November 2008. He is a member of the Airtel Management Board. Srikanth is leading a huge Finance Transformation Programme including shared services, process excellence and automation. Also on his priority list is the enhancement of business partnering skills of finance people, to help them succeed as ‘co-pilots’ in business.
Srikanth worked with Unilever for more than 23 years. Joining Hindustan Unilever in 1985 as a Management Trainee, he performed various finance and cross functional roles. In his position as Vice President- Finance & Commercial, he led a company-wide margin improvement programme, leveraging strategic alliances with several external partners.
In Oct 2005, he moved to Unilever’s head office in London to lead a global Finance transformation programme involving 550 legal entities across 120 countries, that included a string of projects : creating a network of offshored shared services, SAP-SEM/BW implementation, standardisation of record-to-report processes, operating cost reduction, etc. He worked closely with IBM, Cap Gemini and Deloitte on this programme.
Srikanth holds a Commerce degree from the Madras University, graduating from RK Mission Vivekananda College. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant, securing the All India Second Rank in November 1984. He completed his articleship with M/s.Fraser & Ross, Chennai. He is also a recipient of the prestigious National Talent Scholarship. He is married to Radhika, an accomplished painter, and they have two children, Sumant and Uttara.
