Shashwat Sharma, who is presently the chief operations officer at Bharti Airtel Ltd., will be appointed the managing director and chief executive officer of the company on Jan. 1, 2026.
The company is appointing Sharma as the CEO-designate in preparation for this role. As the CEO designate, Sharma will be responsible for the entire end-to-end consumer business, according to a press release on Monday.
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Gopal Vittal, the present MD and CEO, will be responsible for mentoring and grooming Sharma to take over his new role.
Vittal has led Airtel as the MD and CEO for over a decade, and in this period, the company has built a portfolio of businesses across mobile, B2B, home broadband, DTH and digital services. In the mobile space, Airtel has seen its revenue share grow from 30% to 40% under Vittal's leadership.
As part of this structured succession process, Vittal, in addition to being the MD, is being appointed as the vice chairperson of Airtel. As a part of this role, he will take on broader telecom responsibilities across the group, according to the release.
As a Bharti nominee director, Vittal will join the board of Airtel Africa Plc to offer strategic guidance. In addition, he will be responsible for driving group synergies in select areas, such as network strategy, digital and technology, procurement and talent. On Jan. 1, 2026, Vittal will move into the role of executive vice chairperson of the company.
"I am extremely pleased with the succession and transition plan of leadership at Airtel, and there could not have been a better time for Airtel to unveil the new arrangement where change and continuity will go hand in hand," Chairperson Sunil Bharti Mittal said.
Airtel Q2 Results
Bharti Airtel's consolidated net profit fell 12% sequentially for the quarter ended September, missing analysts' estimates.
The telecom giant reported a profit of Rs 4,153 crore during the July–September quarter, compared to Rs 4,159 crore in the previous quarter, according to its stock exchange notification on Monday. That compares with the consensus estimate of Rs 4,398 crore given by analysts polled by Bloomberg
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