Ghosh to step down as Vodafone CEO

Asim Ghosh, the 61-year old CEO of the country's second largest GSM mobile operator, Vodafone-Essar would be stepping down from the company's day-to-day helm of affairs on March 31 as he retires after 10 years of serving as the company's CEO, according to a statement released by the company on Friday.

Marten Pieters would succeed Ghosh. Pieters earlier served as the CEO of Celtel International BV a pan-African mobile operator. Ghosh, who also holds a minority stake in the company, would however, continue as non-executive member on the board of Vodafone Essar.

Ghosh took over the operations of Vodafone-Essar in August 1998 (it was known as Hutch-Essar prior to Februrary 2007), when it was a single licence area operator with 1,40,000 subscribers, and the company has since acquired pan-India operations, with 63 million subscribers. The best compliment to Ghosh's ability in steering the company came from Bharti Airtel's chairman and CEO, Sunil Mittal, who some years back said that the only company from whom Bharti faces serious competition is Vodafone-Essar.

Ravi Ruia, VC, Essar group and chairman of Vodafone-Essar said, "Asim did a tremendous job as chief executive. He has led from the front to grow the company in size and stature, and built a strong team comprising the finest talent in the industry." While Vittorio Colao, CEO Vodafone Group and VC of Vodafone-Essar said, "Marten has very good experience of telecommunications across a very wide range of mature and emerging markets. I am confident he will lead the business and the team which Asim Ghosh has built to even greater success".