Vinod Sawhny
Executive Director & CEO, Beetel Teletech Limited
Prior to joining Beetel, Vinod was the President and Chief Operating Officer, Bharti Retail. In this role, he headed the new retail initiatives of Bharti Enterprises. Vinod joined the Bharti Group as the CEO Northern Region (Mobile) operations in 2002. As CEO & Director, Vinod was instrumental in establishing strong leadership for Airtel’s mobile operations in North India, which also included an acquisition in Rajasthan and setting up a Greenfield operation in J & K. Thereafter, Vinod was appointed Executive Director of Airtel’s Western Region (Mobile) operations and led the division’s turnaround in the critical Western India market. Subsequently, as the Joint President (Enterprise Services) of Bharti Airtel, he once again charted a profitable course for this nascent business.
Prior to his joining Bharti, Vinod was Managing Director of Spice Telecom and was responsible for accelerating the growth of the then emerging telecom business.
Vinod was also selected to join the new Joint Venture Godrej-GE Appliances Limited as the Vice President – Marketing & Sales, for both domestic and international business.
With sound academic credentials, Vinod graduated with a BE (Hons.) in Mechanical Engineering from the prestigious Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, after schooling in St Xavier’s, Calcutta. He received his Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management from XLRI Jamshedpur.
Vinod has participated in select development programs both in India and overseas, notably in Wharton Business School, USA, and the Center for Creative Leadership, Colorado Springs.
He is also an alumnus of the prestigious GE Corporate Management Development Program of Crotonville, NY. Vinod is the recipient of various Top Talent awards and the Chairman’s Honour at Bharti Airtel.
He is regularly invited to speak on business, marketing and leadership at various forum, the most recent being a discussion on Retail in India at the renowned London School of Business.