Airtel Business CEO Ajay Chitkara steps down; leadership team rejigged

Airtel Business announced that its CEO, Ajay Chitkara, has decided to step down from his role. Chitkara is an Airtel veteran, who has been associated with the company for 23 years. He will continue with his role till the third week of 2023.

The company will consequently operate as three business and channel segments – Global Business that will be led by Vani Venkatesh, Domestic Business that will be led by Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, and Nxtra Data Centers led by Ashish Arora.

Thanking Chitkara, MD and CEO of Bharti Airtel Gopal Vittal said, “I also want to acknowledge Ajay’s contributions. In his 23 long years with Airtel Ajay has delivered significant impact. He has also built Airtel Business into a strong force. I wish him the very best in his future endeavours.”

Calling Airtel Business a jewel in the overall portfolio, he also said that he was looking forward to working closely with Vani Venkatesh, Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, and Ashish Arora.

In his role as CEO, Ajay Chitkara spearheaded the company, including its domestic enterprise and global enterprise operations. He reported to Gopal Vittal.

Chitkara joined Airtel in 2001 as sales manager. He has held various positions in the company since then. Chitkara has been widely credited for building brand Airtel in the global wholesale segment. Before he was appointed the CEO of Airtel Business, Chitkara was the Director and CEO of Global Business and Nxtra. He was responsible for creating business strategies for carriers, global enterprise and OTT segments, and implementing them. Under Ajay’s leadership, Global Business grew in topline to become a billion-dollar business.

He is also a board member at Nxtra.

Chitkara is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, where he attended the global leadership programme and studied strategic management. He has an MBA degree from Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad.

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