MUMBAI: He’s been rated as one of the top Indian CEOs. But now Bharti Airtel’s managing director & CEO Gopal Vittal, along with Sunil Mittal, has put in place a plan wherein he will move out of his current position to executive chairman come 1 January 2026. Replacing him will be chief operations officer Shashwat Sharma who will step into his shoes.

For now, Shashwat  is being appointed as CEO designate, responsible for the entire end-to-end consumer business.

In the interim, the telco major has promoted Gopal to vice-chairman along with his existing duties as managing director.  In this role, while continuing to lead the India business, Gopal  will take on broader telecom responsibilities across the group. He is to be appointed to the board of Airtel Africa  as the Bharti nominee director to provide 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.

Gopal will be responsible for mentoring and grooming Shashwat to take over as MD & CEO of Bharti Airtel. He will start to spend time between Delhi and Bangalore.

The company announced changes at the board level too on 28 October. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, having served Airtel for nine years in his current term, will move on to the boards of Indus Towers and Bharti Hexacom. Replacing him is Rajan Bharti Mittal who returns to Airtel to be the Bharti board nominee.