Bharti Airtel announces restructuring plan and leadership changes

Bharti Airtel has announced its restructuring plan to separate its Direct-to-Home (DTH) business from its Connected Homes division. The Connected Homes division will include Broadband and Converged Entertainment. Moreover, Gopal Vittal will assume the Executive Vice Chairman of Bharti Airtel Ltd, and Shashwat Sharma will become the MD & CEO, effective January 1, 2026.

Key Changes in the restructuring plan

The company will appoint Siddharth Sharma, the current CEO of DTH, as the CEO of Connected Homes, and Pushpinder Gujral, currently the CEO of Upper North, will be appointed the CEO and Director of the DTH division.

Furthermore, Bharti Airtel will also separate its Customer Experience as a standalone function, and Shivan Bhargava will be the director of the division. Lastly, Amit Tripathi, currently Director of Marketing and Customer Experience, will be the Director of Marketing Operations and will manage all regional circles and distribution strategy.

“These executives will report to Shashwat Sharma and all the new personnel will take their positions by April 1, 2025,” as reported by ET.

Additional leadership changes

As part of a structured succession plan, Gopal Vittal, currently Managing Director (MD), will become the Vice Chairman of Bharti Airtel Ltd. Vittal will continue to lead the India business while also taking on broader telecom responsibilities. Additionally, he will join the Board of Airtel Africa Plc as the Bharti nominee director to provide strategic guidance.

“Airtel, India’s foremost corporate entity, has had a distinguished record of well thought out structured succession planning. 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,” said Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Airtel.

On January 1, 2026, Gopal will be transferred to the role of Executive Vice Chairman, while Shashwat Sharma, currently Chief Operation Officer, will be appointed as the MD & CEO of Bharti Airtel Ltd. Shashwat will be responsible for the end-to-end consumer business. Gopal will mentor and groom Shashwat to take over as MD & CEO of Bharti Airtel Ltd.