Gopal Vittal, the CEO who grew Airtel's market cap roughly ₹1 trn annually for 12 years on the trot

Gopal (Vittal) is one of those rare leaders who is equally left and right brained. I once barged into Gopal's office and found him listening to Kumar Gandharva while deep in his Excel sheets. — Sudhir Sitapati, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of Godrej Consumer Products.Over the last nine-ten years, India's telecom sector has been buffeted into submission by the entry of the country's richest and most powerful businessman into phone services.

From 13 players in 2014, there are today just four companies remaining in the business — led by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio).“So, while the launch [of Jio made disappear] six-seven companies and triggered consolidation, Airtel has stood its ground and grown,” Bharti Enterprises founder and chairman Sunil Mittal said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2025 earlier this month.“One single factor due to which we could survive was our people, the talent we had,” he added.Mittal might as well have named Gopal Vittal, Airtel's managing director and CEO of the last 12 years and the spearhead of transformation at the company badly rocked both by the vagaries of the market and the often greedy and hamhanded approach of regulators.Vittal will move up as executive vice chairman starting 2026, Bharti Airtel first announced in October 2024 on the leadership transition, which was later followed with an update last week. “In his new role, besides oversight of the companies, Gopal will also be responsible for driving group synergies in the areas of digital and technology, network strategy, procurement and talent.