Bharti Airtel Rings Ezekwesili into Board

Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili, Nigeria's Former World Bank Vice President for Africa and a world-renowned expert on economic reforms and economic governance, joins the Bharti Airtel board, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now report.

The new board member has a strong track record in the transparency, accountability, good governance, and anti-corruption movement worldwide, having been one of the co-founders of Transparency International and served as one of the pioneer Directors of the global anti-corruption body based in Berlin, Germany.

Her appointment into the mobile operator’s board is part of a long-term restructuring programme that would culminate in an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Bharti Infratel, which is a leading provider of passive telecom infrastructure in the Indian sub-continent.

A statement signed by Emeka Oparah, communications director, Airtel Nigeria glowingly eulogized Ezekwesili’s appointment.

It will be recalled that as the vice President of the World Bank in charge of the Africa region, Ezekwesili was responsible for operations in 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and supervised a lending portfolio of over $40 billion.

She previously served as director of the Harvard-Nigeria Economic Strategy Programme in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and Abuja, Nigeria.

 She holds a master’s in international law from the University of Lagos, a master’s in public policy and administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and is a chartered accountant.

Ezekwesili started off in the administration of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, as the pioneer head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence (Due Process Unit).

 It was in this position that she earned the sobriquet of "Madam Due Process" for the outstanding work she led a team of professionals to do in sanitizing public procurement or contracting at the Federal level in Nigeria.

She was the architect of the Bureau for Public Procurement legislation, the NEITI legislation and the new Minerals and Mining legislation during her six and a half years stint in government.

She was appointed Minister of Solid Minerals (Mines and Steel) in June 2005 during which time she led a vibrant reform program that led to Nigeria's global recognition as a credible mining investment destination.

She was also the Chairperson of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and led the first ever national implementation of the global standards and principles of transparency in the oil, gas and mining sector.

In June 2006, Ezekwesili was appointed the Federal Minister of Education, holding this post until she took up her World Bank appointment in May 2007.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director, Bharti Airtel said: “These changes have been effected in line with our strong corporate governance culture and will ensure that Bharti and Singtel have distinct representatives on the Boards of Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel. I am confident that these two world-class Boards will continue to guide these companies to greater heights. I would also take this opportunity to thank the outgoing Directors for their contribution to the Board of Bharti Airtel.”

Following the restructuring exercise, the composition of the two boards would be as follows.

For Bharti Airtel: Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal (Chairman and Managing Director), Mr. Ajay Lal, Ms. Chua Sock Koong, Mr. Craig Ehrlich, Mr. Manoj Kohli, Mr. Manish Kejriwal, Mr. N. Kumar, Mr. Nikesh Arora, Ms. Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili, Mr. Pulak Prasad, Mr. Rajan Bharti Mittal, Ms. Tan Yong Choo and Mr. Tsun-yan Hsieh.

For Bharti Infratel: Mr. Rakesh Bharti Mittal (Chairman), Mr. Akhil Gupta (Vice Chairman and Managing Director), Mr. Bharat S. Raut, Mr. Jitender Balakrishnan, Mr. N Kumar, Mr. Sanjay Nayar, Mr. Sarvjit Singh Dhillon and Mr. Vinod Kumar Dhall.

Bharti Infratel deploys, owns and manages telecom towers and communication structures, for various mobile operators across 18 states of India and has been the industry pioneer in adopting green energy initiatives across its tower network. It has a footprint of over 33,000 towers and holds a 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers Limited – a Joint Venture between Bharti Infratel, Vodafone & Idea Cellular.