Bharti Airtel, Appoints African Professionals to Drive Continent’s Business

Bharti Airtel, a leading emerging market telecom services provider, today announced the appointment of African professionals to its top management as it moves to entrench its operations on the continent. The company said it would continue tapping into the diversity of Africa’s world-class talent pool.  
Mr.  Fayaz King, has been appointed as the Managing Director for Zambia. Mr. King who has been in charge of the Malawi operation will now be entrusted with the role of driving the overall business strategy and successful implementation of market leadership initiatives in Zambia.
Announcing the appointments, Bharti Airtel CEO, Mr. Manoj Kohli said the change in leadership was aimed at ensuring that the Zambia operation which is the number one mobile communications provider in the country continues to experience further growth. Last year the Zambia business, which has more than 3 million subscribers, recorded a 15% growth in the subscriber base.
Mr. Kohli said the new Managing Director had vast experience and the technical know-how to effectively drive the Zambian business to meet the emerging needs of the customers.
“Mr. King has done a splendid job during his two year stint as the MD of Malawi. In 2009, under his leadership, Malawi achieved an outstanding growth of 72% in revenue market share, being the highest in the Group” he said. 
Mr  Kohli reiterated that Airtel’s  long term commitment to Zambia, terming it a key market in the success of the company.
The statement also announced the appointment of Mr. Saulos Chilima as the Managing Director for Malawi.  Mr. Chilima formerly served as the Sales and Distribution Director and has been on the Zain Malawi Board for the last one year. Bharti Airtel CEO, Manoj Kohli said the appointment was in line with Airtel’s business strategy of developing human capital and empowering the local operations.
“Saulos is a Malawian National and we are giving responsibility of running the business to African professionals” said Mr. Kohli.
Saulos holds a Master of Economics Degree and is currently studying for a Diploma in Financial Management with the ACCA. He started his career in Telecommunications as Sales Director, Zain Malawi in September 2006. Prior to joining Zain, Saulos was at Unilever, Malawi and Southern Bottlers Limited (Coca Cola and Carlsberg bottler). He also has 4 years experience in Leasing, having worked for the Leasing and Finance Company in Malawi.
Also going up the corporate ladder is Mr. Michael Okwiri to head the Corporate Communications docket for Africa. Mr. Okwiri will be responsible for building and sustaining positive corporate reputation for Airtel Africa. Until his appointment, Mr. Okwiri was the Corporate Communications Director at Zain Kenya. He has over 15 years experience in Corporate Communications having served in a similar capacity at Kenya Airways when the Airline was voted African Airline of the Year in 2005 and the most respected company in East Africa for two years running.
Prior to joining Kenya Airways, Mr. Okwiri also worked for the Kenya Commercial Bank and Coca Cola.  He will be based at the Airtel Africa Headquarters in Nairobi.
The company recently acquired the mobile services operations of Zain in 15 countries across Africa and is working towards introducing its brand ‘Airtel’ in these markets shortly.