Together good things happen - Airtel

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Akhil Gupta
Chua Sock Koong
Bharti Airtel Annual Report 2009-10
Akhil Gupta is the Deputy Group CEO & Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises and a non-executive
director of Bharti Airtel. He has been closely associated with strategy, finance, mergers and acquisitions
and business performance for the group. He has spearheaded the transformational initiatives including the
outsourcing deals in the areas of IT, network management and customer service management. He is the
Managing Director of Bharti Infratel and a director of Indus Towers. Akhil also serves on the Boards of Bharti
AXA Life Insurance and Bharti AXA General Insurance besides several other group companies.
Akhil was conferred the ‘CA Business Achiever Award’ in 2009 and was voted as the ‘Best CFO of the Year’
at the CNBC TV 18 CFO Awards in 2006. He was also adjudged as the ‘CFO for the year for Mergers &
Acquisitions’ by the Economic Intelligence Unit India & American Express in 2002.
Akhil is a Chartered Accountant by qualification with over 29 years of experience. He has attended the
Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Arun Bharat Ram
Arun Bharat Ram is an independent director and a member of the Board Audit Committee of Bharti
Airtel. Arun is the Chairman of SRF Ltd, a manufacturer of chemical based industrial intermediates.
Having founded the Company in 1971, he has seen it grow into a multinational entity with sales in
excess of half a billion dollars. His strong belief in Total Quality Management led the technical textiles
business to win the coveted Deming Application Award in 2004. He has been a strong proponent of
corporate governance and meritocracy in his company.
Arun was the President of CII during 2000-01 and has also been conferred with the Officer’s Cross of
the Order of Merit by the Government of Germany in 2008 and Jamshedji Tata Award by Indian
Society for Quality in 2006. He is a keen musician and respected philanthropist.
Chua Sock Koong is a nominee of SingTel and was appointed as a non-executive director of Bharti
Airtel in May 2001. Sock Koong joined SingTel in June 1989 as Treasurer and was promoted to Chief
Financial Officer in April 1999. She held the positions of Group CFO and CEO International from
February 2006 until October 12, 2006, when she was appointed Deputy Group CEO. She was
appointed as SingTel Group CEO in April 2007.
Sock Koong holds a 1st Class Honours Degree in Accountancy from the University of Singapore and
is a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Craig Edward Ehrlich
Craig Edward Ehrlich is an independent director of Bharti Airtel. He is the Chairman of the Board HR
Committee and a member of the Board ESOP Compensation Committee. Craig is the former long
time Chairman of the GSMA, the global trade association representing second and third generation
network operators, manufacturers and suppliers.
He has served as a board member of Hutchison Telecoms Group Holdings Ltd since 2003 and now
advises the group’s 3G and 2G businesses worldwide.
Craig is a board member of Eastern Telecom and Philweb in Philippines. He is the Chairman of Kbro,
Taiwan's largest cable TV operator and Novare Technologies Ltd., a software company based in Hong
Kong. He is a member of ITU Telecom Board. Craig was a founding member of the team that
launched STAR TV, Asia's first satellite delivered multi-channel television network. After four years with
Hutchison Whampoa, Craig became the Group Operations Director at Hutchison
Telecommunications. Craig holds a B.A. degree from the UCLA, a Masters degree from Occidental
College and a postgraduate fellowship with the Coro Foundation.
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