Airtel India appoints Vani Venkatesh as CEO-Retail

Bharti Airtel has announced the appointment of Vani Venkatesh as CEO — Retail. In her new role, Venkatesh will be responsible for driving Airtel’s retail strategy to deliver a seamless customer experience across retail touch point. Venkatesh takes over from Rohit Malhotra, who after spending over nine years with the company in various senior positions, has decided to pursue opportunities outside of Airtel.

Venkatesh has over 19 years of work experience. In her last role, she was responsible for the medical nutrition business at Abbott Healthcare (India). Prior to Abbott Healthcare, she worked with McKinsey & Company, where she led projects across industries. She began her career with Hindustan Unilever in the Finance division. Vani is an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. She is also a qualified CA, Cost and Works Accountant and Company Secretary.

Bharti Airtel’s Q2 fell 5% from a earlier year as its voice & data business came under pressure from competing players, primarily Reliance Communications, because of the launch of their new product Jio Infocomm, last month and its interest burden rose.