Billionaire Gautam Adani has rejigged the top leadership at his airports business after taking control of the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) and Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIAL) last week, naming R K Jain as the chief executive officer (CEO) Airports.
The head office of Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL), the wholly-owned airports unit of Adani Enterprises Ltd, has been shifted to Ahmedabad from Mumbai.
Jain, until recently the CEO of MIAL will take over as CEO Airports from Ben Zandi, who will now be the CEO of Non-Aero at AAHL, according to a 17 July internal memo seen by BusinessLine.
Jain, a 15-year veteran at MIAL, is also credited with winning the Navi Mumbai Airport Project and was actively involved as CEO of NMIAL.
Jain will be involved in shaping the scheme for Airport Slum Rehabilitation to take it to implementation stage. He will also be involved in airport regulatory issues. The CEO of MIAL, Chief Airport Officers of Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Jaipur will report to him. Jain will report Dr Malay Mahadevia, CEO of AAHL.
Prakash Tulsiani, President Operations AAHL will take over as CEO of MIAL from Jain. Prakash has been in the hospitality, shipping, ports and logistics sectors in a career spanning over three decades. Prakash will be based in Mumbai and will report to Jain.
Capt BVJK Sharma, Director-Ports (APSEZ) will take over as the CEO of Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIAL) from Jain. Capt Sharma, was instrumental in the development and operations of Mundra port in its initial years. He has extensive expertise in developing various green field and brown field projects.
Prabhat Mahapatra, Head Operations MIAL, will assume the newly created role of Head Operations Center of Excellence (COE) and will report to Jain. Prabhat played a key role in the operations of MIAL over the last decade. In his new role as Head Operations CoE, Mahapatra will work towards strengthening and further augmenting the aero operation capabilities across all airports of AAHL.
B G Gandhi, Chief Operating Officer (COO) - Krishnapatnam Port will assume the role of Chief Airport Officer in Adani Ahmedabad International Airport Limited. Gandhi will report to Jain and will be based in Ahmedabad.
Manoj Katar, Chief Operating Officer - Dahej Port will assume the role of Head of Operations, MIAL from Prabhat Mahapatra. Manoj will report to Prakash Tulsiani and will be based in Mumbai.
Nirav Shah, GM-MPSEZ Utilities Pvt Ltd will assume the role of Chief Airport Officer - Adani Mangaluru International Airport Limited. Shah will report to Jain and will be based in Mangaluru.
Vishnu Jha, currently Head Operations T-1 and General Aviation Terminal at MIAL has been named Chief Airport Officer, Jaipur. Vishnu will report to Jain and will be based in Jaipur.
Rekha Nair, currently Head of Airport Service at MIAL will take over the newly created role of Head Customer Experience and Quality for AAHL. In her new role, Rekha will provide strategic leadership in defining customer experience across all Adani Airports. She will report to Dr Malay Mahadevia, the CEO of AAHL.
“As we look to consolidate and pursue aggressive growth of the Adani Group in the airports sector, it has been decided to relocate the head office of AAHL from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. We believe this decision will foster collaborative working and agile decision making, which is of paramount importance at this stage of our journey,” Mahadevia said in the memo.