Bharti Airtel today announced senior level organisational changes that will be effective March 1. After almost 15 years at Bharti Group, Sanjay Kapoor, CEO – India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel, has decided to pursue his future aspirations outside of Bharti.

Gopal Vittal, who rejoined Airtel in April 2012 as Group Director - Special Projects, will take over as the new CEO of Airtel India.

Sanjay joined Bharti Cellular Ltd as its COO in 1998 and soon took over as its CEO to develop Delhi Circle. He will continue his association with the Bharti Group and be on the Board of Indus Towers Ltd and Bharti Global Ltd.

Gopal has spent the past year across the Singtel Group in South Asia/Australia, Softbank and Silicon Valley understanding emerging trends in data and Internet space.

Commenting on the appointment Sunil Bharti Mittal, said, “Gopal worked closely with me during his earlier stint as Director Marketing in Airtel. Gopal spent his last year understanding the new wave of mobile telephony, in particular the data space and data experience. This will be extremely relevant and valuable for the next phase of Airtel's growth. ”

Gopal Vittal had a long career spanning over 20 years with Hindustan Unilever. In his last stint at HUL, Gopal was instrumental in leading the $3.5 billion Home & Personal Care Division.

Airtel also announced that its South Asia operations, that is, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka would report to the CEO (International), Manoj Kohli effective March 1, 2013. However, various business leaders and functions from Airtel India would continue to support South Asia operations in this revised arrangement.

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