Bharti rejigs Africa top deck, Manoj Kohli back in India

In a top order rejig, Bharti Airtel today said it has appointed Christian de Faria as CEO of its African operations who will take charge from January 1, 2014.A bigger development is Manoj Kohli, the joint MD of Bharti is relocating to India starting next year. However, he will coninue to look after airtel's internnational operations.

The company said besides international operations, kohli will be providing governance oversight to Airtel Africa, Airtel Bangladesh and Airtel Sri Lanka. "Manoj would also lead strategic issues such as in-market consolidation via M&A, key matters relating to Towerco, global partnerships, global sourcing from key Partners and strategic Regulatory aspects," a statement said.

Christian de Faria will report to Kohli.

Additionally, Manoj will be responsible for the Business Development / M&A function for the telecom business and be involved with the group strategic matters. Manoj will continue his position on the Boards of Bharti Airtel International Netherlands B.V. and Airtel Networks Ltd, Nigeria.

Christian Faria, for the last seven years, was 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 Jan 2013. As CEO - Airtel Africa, Christian will be responsible for providing overall leadership for the African operations and will be fully empowered to manage its P&L. 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 B.V. and on the Boards of major Opcos in Africa.