De Faria will take the position of the current CEO Manoj Kohli who is in-charge of Airtel’s operations in Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who will be relocating to India effective Jan 1, 2014/FILE
De Faria will first take charge of Anglophone operations and commence a comprehensive orientation encompassing Airtel Africa headquarter functions, Francophone and Nigeria Regions on September 16, 2013 before assuming overall responsibility as the CEO-Airtel Africa.
De Faria will take the position of the current CEO Manoj Kohli who is in-charge of Airtel’s operations in Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who will be relocating to India effective Jan 1, 2014.
Kohli, who is currently based at Airtel’s Africa headquarters in Nairobi, has successfully led the company’s foray into Africa over the past three years.
De Faria was for the last seven years associated with MTN where he held senior leadership positions including Executive Vice President, responsible for the operations for West and Central Africa Region and later as Group Commercial Officer for two years until January 2013.
As CEO-Airtel Africa, De Faria will be responsible for providing overall leadership for the African operations.
He will lead the growth agenda across markets and build key skills and capabilities within the organization.
He will also be co-opted on the board of Bharti Airtel International Netherlands.
“Christian brings with him over 30 years of rich industry experience across multiple geographies, diverse sectors and organizations such as MTN, Telekom Malaysia, Discvision, Deutsche Telecom and Grundig,” Bharti Airtel Chairman, Sunil Bharti Mittal said.
While continuing to lead Airtel’s international operations and providing governance oversight to Airtel Africa, Airtel Bangladesh and Airtel Sri Lanka, Kohli will also lead strategic issues such as in-market consolidation, key matters relating to global partnerships, global sourcing from key partners and strategic regulatory aspects.
Kohli will continue his position on the Boards of Bharti Airtel International Netherlands and Airtel Networks Limited, Nigeria.
De Faria will report to Kohli.
