GSMA elects Sunil Bharti Mittal as Chairman, new board members

The London-based global mobile operators’ lobby group, GSM Association (GSMA) has announced that it has elected new members of the GSMA Board for the two-year period from January 2017 through December 2018. The GSMA Board has also elected Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder & Chairman, Bharti Enterprises as Chair, and re-elected Mari-Noëlle Jego-Laveissiere, Executive Vice President, Innovation, Orange Group as Deputy Chair.

As GSMA Chair, Mittal will oversee the strategic direction of the organization, which represents nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 300 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem.

The first Indian to be elected as Chair of the GSMA, Mittal took over as Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) early this year. He also serves on the boards and councils of several reputed international bodies and think-tanks like the World Economic Forum (WEF), Telecom Board of International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Broadband Commission, Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council – Board of Dean’s Advisors at HBS, International Advisory Panel of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Prime Minister of Singapore’s Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council. He is also a Trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and on the Board of Qatar Foundation Endowment.

Bharti Airtel was the host of the inaugural GSMA Mobile 360 – India event in New Delhi recently, as well as a meeting of the GSMA Board where GSMA Chair-elect Mittal led the GSMA Board delegation at a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a broad-ranging discussion, the meeting highlighted the pivotal role of mobile in delivering the government’s Digital India vision of broadband as a utility for every citizen, bringing digital and financial inclusion to every corner of the country.