Indian telecom sector teeming with expat execs

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 26 March 2009, 15:52 IST   |    5 Comments
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New Delhi: While the Indian industry in the recession mode is relentlessly avoiding foreign executives as a retrenchment measure, the telecom industry is bucking the trend. The telecom sector is witnessing an increased number of foreign expats in the top notch positions. The country's telco giant Bharti Airtel recently poached T-Mobile's Chief Technology Officer Joachim Horn to help expand its global footprint and interface with strategic partners, reports The Economic Times. The firm's enterprise services division, which accounts for about 20 percent of its revenues, is headed by American David Nishball, the former head of France Telecom's Asia Pacific operations. Vodafone Essar also already has 10 expats in top positions, including its Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Among the latest is Marten Pieters, who has left Africa's second-largest mobile operator Celtel, to take over Asim Ghosh's Vodafone Essar. The other prominent companies, who would soon be headed by foreign nationals include Shyam Telelink-Sistema, Unitech Wireless-Telenor and Swan Telecom-Etisalat. "Foreign operators such as Etisalat, Telenor and Sistema prefer to bring in the top management of their choice because their Indian partners have absolutely no experience in the telecom space," said a senior executive of a company that bagged telecom licenses last year. Most of the companies who obtained telecom licenses last year have no experience in the industry, so, despite the process of positioning expat executives being rigorous, the firms are increasingly recruiting them. Earlier, the telecom sector prohibited the entrance of the foreign expats in the key positions and though the restriction is lifted yet the firms need a special clearance from the home ministry.