Bharti Airtel appoints Sunil Taldar as CEO & Director of DTH business

Bharti Airtel has named Sunil Taldar as the CEO and Director of its direct-to-home (DTH) business. He will also be a member of the Airtel Management Board and report to Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India & South Asia), Bharati Airtel.

Taldar was earlier the country head – Indonesia for Mondelez and helped to turn the business around in the country. Prior to this, Sunil was India Sales Director for Cadbury where he transformed the company's go to market capabilities and delivered solid growth.

He takes the reins from Shashi Arora who has moved to Airtel's Payment Bank as the MD & CEO.

In his new role, Sunil will be responsible for driving growth and innovation for Airtel Digital TV, which is a key growth driver within the company’s B2C portfolio, it said in a release.

Gopal Vittal said, “We are pleased to have Sunil as part of our leadership team and hope that his rich experience across consumer facing categories will add value to our DTH portfolio. I wish Sunil all the best for his new role and look forward to working with him. I would also thank Shashi for his valuable contribution to Airtel Digital TV.”

Sunil has over 28 years in the FMCG industry with Mondelez (erstwhile Cadbury), where he held several senior leadership positions across multiple geographies, including India, China, and Singapore across Sales, Marketing, Media and General Management.

Airtel Digital TV had over 12.4 million customers at the end of the quarter ended September 2016 and the business recorded a revenue growth of 21% and customer growth of 17% for the same period.