Bharti Airtel has announced top level changes for its Africa operations. To further enhance the level of empowerment and enable faster decision making as well as speed to market, the company also unveiled a new cluster based organization design.
In the changes, Christian de Faria, MD & CEO at Airtel Africa, will become Executive Chairman at the company. In his new role, De Faria will continue to support the vision of Airtel Africa and lead all matters relating to legal, regulatory affairs, shareholders as well as Mergers & Acquisitions.
Raghunath Mandava, currently Director – Customer Experience, India & South Asia, will take over as COO Airtel Africa. Mandava will relocate to Nairobi and be fully responsible for the commercial operations. Mandava joined Airtel in 2003. Before joining Airtel, Mandava worked in Unilever.
As per the new cluster based organization design, the 15 African operations will now be classified into eight clusters with all cluster heads reporting to Mandava.
Under Cluster 1, Nigeria and Ghana will now form one cluster under the leadership of Segun Ogunsanya. He will continue to be the MD for Nigeria while Lucy Quist, MD for Ghana will report into him. Under Cluster 2 will see Wim Vanhelleputte take responsibility for DRC and Congo Brazzaville. In addition to being MD for DRC, Wim will also have Gerard Lokossou – MD Congo Brazzaville reporting into him. Cluster 3 will see Alain Kahasha oversee both Gabon and Madagascar. Heiko Schlittke, MD for Gabon and Maixent Bekangba, MD – Madagascar will both report into him.
Under Cluster 4 Tom Gutjahr will continue as MD Uganda and also have the MD for Seychelles, Amadou Mahamat Dina, reporting into him. Cluster 5 Sunil Colaso – MD Tanzania will also have Michael Adjei – MD for Rwanda reporting into him. Under Cluster 6 Peter Correia will take charge of both Zambia and Malawi. While Peter continues as the MD for Zambia, Charles Kamoto – MD Malawi will also report into him. Anwar Soussa will continue as MD for Chad. Raymond Mendy, MD for Niger, will report into Anwar. Cluster 8 Kenya OpCo will continue to be led by Adil Elyoussefi as MD.
