The Hindu : Business : Sarin to step down as Vodafone CEO

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Business

Business

Sarin to step down as Vodafone CEO

The company’s footprint in emerging markets expanded under his leadership

Hutch Essar buy is the largest foreign investment in India
Customer base more than doubled to 260 m globally

— FILE PHOTO

BIDDING ADIEU: Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin delivering a keynote address during a wireless show in Las Vegas last month.

LONDON: British telecom giant Vodafone on Tuesday announced that Arun Sarin, one of few Indian-origin chiefs of large companies outside India, is stepping down as its CEO and would be replaced by his deputy Vittorio Colao on July 29.

After five years as CEO of one of the largest mobile operators in the world, Mr. Sarin would retire at the end of Vodafone’s annual general meeting on July 29, and would be succeeded by Deputy Chief Executive Vittorio Colao.

Mr. Sarin became CEO in July 2003 and has led Vodafone’s evolution into a full-fledged communications company.

“Under his leadership, Vodafone has developed and implemented a new strategy,” the company said, adding that as part of this strategy, it had expanded into emerging markets, including Romania, Czech Republic, Turkey and most recently, India, where Mr. Sarin led the acquisition of Hutchison Essar.

Vodafone’s acquisition of Hutch Essar is the largest foreign investment made in India.

Besides, under Sarin’s leadership, Vodafone disposed of businesses in Japan and Sweden, together with interests in Switzerland and Belgium.

Vodafone’s customer base more than doubled from 120 million to over 260 million globally under his leadership, while returns to shareholders also grew with dividends rising more than 400 per cent.

“I feel I have accomplished what I set out to achieve, particularly in developing and implementing a new strategy,” Mr. Sarin said in a statement.

Vodafone Chairman John Bond said Mr. Sarin significantly expanded Vodafone’s footprint in emerging markets and the acquisition in India was very well timed and executed. Mr. Sarin, 53, is an IIT graduate and also holds an MS in engineering and an MBA from the University of California.

He started his career as a management consultant before moving, in 1984, to the Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco, where he was instrumental in the company acquiring the first cellular licences in the U.S. as well as winning the first cellular licence in Germany and a PCN licence in the U.K.

Following the demerger from Pacific Telesis of the mobile and paging businesses to form AirTouch Communications, Mr. Sarin was appointed Senior Vice-President Corporate Strategy and Development, and later, President with responsibility to manage cellular and paging operations in 14 countries. He was a key negotiator in the merger of AirTouch with Vodafone Group Plc and was appointed CEO of U.S./Asia-Pacific region of the combined business.

In 2000, with the merger of Vodafone AirTouch’s U.S. businesses with those of Bell Atlantic and GTE to form Verizon Wireless, Mr. Sarin, while remaining a non-executive director of Vodafone AirTouch Plc, became CEO of Infospace, a provider of mobile internet content and directory services.

In 2001, Mr. Sarin joined Accel-KKR Telecom, a telecom investment and management business. In April 2003, he became CEO designate of Vodafone Group Plc and assumed the post of Chief Executive on July 30, 2003.

The next CEO Vittorio Colao, 46, is reserve officer of the Italian Carabinieri Army. Vodafone also announced on Tuesday that its non-executive directors Michael Boskin and Jurgen Schrempp would not be seeking re-election at the AGM. — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business

News Update

Stories in this Section