Mukesh Bhavnani has been appointed as the group general counsel and company secretary of Bharti Enterprises, the parent company of Bharti airtel. He will take over from Vijaya Sampath, effective June 2, 2011.
Bhavnani has moved from the Essar Group, where he was group president, legal. He has around 30 years of experience spanning across multiple industries including insurance, infrastructure, media, and consumer goods. In his last assignment Bhavnani was responsible for the listing of Essar Group’s energy business on the London Stock Exchange.
At Bharti his key focus would include strategic and high impact legal policy and structuring across Bharti businesses, litigation related to key matters, mergers and acquisitions and overseeing the group Secretarial function.
Meanwhile, Vijaya Sampath has been appointed as advisor to Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group CEO, Bharti Enterprises. This will be effective June 2, 2011 until March 31, 2012.
Sampath has been with the Bharti Group for seven-and-a-half years and has played a key role in group strategic initiatives including mergers and acquisitions and has been instrumental in developing robust functional talent bench.
Under the new arrangement, she will focus on specific areas relating to Airtel Africa. Sampath will also continue as Ombudsperson for Bharti group and work on projects as assigned from time to time by the chairman.
