Airtel names COO Shashwat Sharma as MD & CEO from Jan 1, 2026; Vittal to become executive vice chairman

Bharti Airtel names COO Shashwat Sharma as MD & CEO from January 1, 2026

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on October 28 said Shashwat Sharma, currently Chief Operating Officer, will be appointed MD & CEO on January 1, 2026, while the telco's current MD & CEO, Gopal Vittal, will move into the role of Executive Vice Chairman.

With immediate effect, Sharma, as CEO designate, has started overseeing the entire end-to-end consumer business, including mobility, home, and DTH. At the same time, Vittal continues to manage the rest of the businesses, including enterprise and human resources. When Sharma takes over the role in January 2026, he will be responsible for both consumer and enterprise businesses.

The company also announced that Vittal has become the managing director and vice chairman, effective immediately. He will be responsible for mentoring Sharma.

"In preparation for this role, Sharma is being appointed CEO designate of the Company. As the CEO designate, Shashwat will be responsible for the entire end-to-end consumer business. Gopal Vittal will be responsible for mentoring and grooming Shashwat to take over as MD & CEO of Bharti Airtel Ltd," said the telecom firm.

Vittal has served as the Managing Director and CEO of Bharti Airtel for the past twelve years. During this time, Airtel has developed a strong portfolio of businesses, which includes mobile services, B2B solutions, home broadband, DTH, and digital services. Even in the highly competitive mobile market, Airtel has increased its revenue market share from 30 percent to 40 percent.

"As part of a structured succession process, Gopal Vittal, in addition to being the Managing Director, is being appointed Vice Chairman of Bharti Airtel Ltd. In this role, while continuing to lead the India business, he will take on broader telecom responsibilities across the group. Gopal will be appointed to the Board of Airtel Africa Plc as the Bharti nominee director to provide strategic guidance. In addition, he will be responsible for driving group synergies in select areas such as Network strategy, digital & technology, procurement and talent," the company added.

Vittal will start to spend time between Delhi and Bangalore. "He will continue to travel extensively to ensure a structured transition and provide leadership and oversight across the group including overseas operations," said the telco in the statement.

Full-fledged restructuring

The Sunil Mittal-led telco is also making more changes under the planned restructuring, which will come into effect from April 1, 2025. Under the restructuring, Airtel will decouple DTH from the converged entertainment category and create two separate categories—connected homes, which will include Broadband and Converged Entertainment, and DTH. While Connected Homes will focus on driving rapid growth and competitiveness, DTH will focus on driving world-class efficiencies and competitiveness.

Additionally, under the restructuring, Airtel will separate Customer Experience into a stand-alone function. Shivan Bhargava will be appointed as the director of customer experience and lead this function.

Siddharth Sharma, currently CEO of DTH, will be appointed Director of Marketing and CEO of Connected Homes, while Pushpinder Gujral, currently CEO of Upper North, will be appointed CEO and Director of DTH.

Amit Tripathi, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience, will be appointed Director of Market Operations, leading all circles and distribution strategy.

Amit Tripathi, Siddharth Sharma, Pushpinder Gujral, and Shivan Bhargava will report to Shashwat Sharma. All individuals will be in place by April 1, 2025.

Other top executives Sharat Sinha, Randeep Sekhon, Soumen Ray, Pankaj Miglani, Pradipt Kapoor, Amrita Padda, Rahul Vatts, Vidyut Gulati and OP Galhotra will continue to report to Vittal.

"Airtel, India’s foremost corporate entity, has had a distinguished record of well thought out structured succession planning. I am extremely pleased with the succession and transition plan of leadership at Airtel and there could not have been a better time for Airtel to unveil the new arrangement where change and continuity will go hand in hand," Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

"Empowerment has been an article of faith with me which has resulted in a highly energized management delivering superior results. Airtel is one of the rare homegrown enterprises where the finest professionals combine entrepreneurial flair to bring to hundreds of millions of customers the best technology and services in our industry," Mittal added.

Board Change

Rakesh Bharti Mittal, who has served Airtel for nine years in his current term, will transition to the boards of Indus Towers Limited and Bharti Hexacom Limited. Meanwhile, Rajan Bharti Mittal is returning to Airtel to assume the position of Bharti Board nominee, effective immediately.

On October 28, Bharti Airtel said its consolidated net profit climbed 168% to Rs 3,593 crore in the July-September quarter, helped by its first tariff hike in over two years.