Airtel Africa goes for top-level changes

Aimed at quick decision-making, Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced top-level changes for its Africa operations.

Raghunath Mandava has been appointed as chief operating officer  of Airtel Africa while Christian Defaria is elevated to the position of executive chairman.

Mandava is currently the director – customer experience for India and South Asia regions. He will be relocated to Nairobi and fully responsible for the commercial operations in Africa. In his new role, Defaria will continue to support the vision of Airtel Africa and lead all matters relating to legal, regulatory affairs, shareholders as well as mergers and acquisitions, the company said.

The firm also announced a new cluster-based organisation design wherein 15 African countries will now be classified into eight clusters with each head reporting to Raghu.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman, Bharti Airtel, said, “Christian has done an excellent job by streamlining the operations, strengthening the leadership teams across Africa while enhancing the image of Airtel brand across Africa. We believe we have a strong platform to accelerate our journey towards profitability and market leadership."

The appointment of Raghu would help leverage the platform and sharpen our market focus and strengthen the innovation pipeline, Mittal said and added: "We remained fully committed to Africa and continue to invest in the growth of our operations."

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