Srini Gopalan, Bharti Airtel's Consumer Director India, is set to leave the company to join Deutsche Telekom on October 1, and after an onboarding period, will assume the duties of Claudia Nemat – who will head the new Technology and Innovation Board department and relinquish responsibility for the Europe segment – effective January 1st, 2017.
Deutsche Telekom Thursday said that its Supervisory Board has appointed Srini Gopalan as the new Board member for Europe. "Srini Gopalan brings a number of advantages to the table: he knows the company and the industry, he has international experience and the right attitude for continuing Claudia Nemat's successful work," Ulrich Lehner, Chairman of the supervisory board of Deutsche Telekom, said in a statement.
"I look forward to working with Srini Gopalan. We're strengthening technology and IT with the new Board department on the one hand, while on the other hand we're strengthening our expertise on marketing and sales with our new head of Europe who has extensive experience with consumers," said Timotheus Hoettges, Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Telekom.
In his job at Bharti Airtel, Gopalan was responsible for consumer business in 23 different regions of India, which covered broadband connections and satellite TV in addition to mobile communications. His work focused on generating USPs through innovative offerings, which helped differentiate Airtel in a highly price sensitive market.
Before joining Bharti Airtel, Gopalan worked in the UK for over ten years – at first in a number of functions for Capital One, an American financial services provider, which he left as Managing Director UK in 2009. He then worked as Chief Marketing Officer at T-Mobile UK, where he was responsible for marketing and sales. He was part of the management team that led T-Mobile UK to the joint venture with Orange, everything-everywhere. After this, he served as Director Consumer Business Unit at Vodafone UK for three years.
Airtel spokesperson: Srini has decided to pursue opportunities outside of Airtel and we respect his decision. We thank him for his valuable contribution to the organization and wish him the very best for the future.
Gopalan studied Business Administration at the renowned St. Stephen’s College in New Delhi and later earned his MBA at IIM Ahmedabad, India's leading business school.
