Arun Sarin
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Arun Sarin (Hindi:अरुण सरीन) (born October 21, 1954, in Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh, India) is the CEO of the world's biggest mobile phone company (by revenue), Britain's Vodafone Group plc. He is originally from India, has United States citizenship, and is presently based in the United Kingdom.
Sarin graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur with a B.Tech degree in Engineering in 1975. In 1978 he gained a MS in Engineering and a MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to this he did his schooling from Military School Bangalore, Bangalore. He excelled in studies, sports and co curricular activities. He was known for his sharp intelligence and good sporting skills especially in hockey and boxing in school. He started his career as a management consultant before moving, in 1984, to Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco. He was a director of AirTouch from July 1995 and was President and Chief Operating Officer from February 1997 to June 1999. He was then Vodafone's Chief Executive Officer for the United States and Asia Pacific region until 15 April 2000, when Vodafone's U.S. interests were merged into Verizon Wireless. He subsequently became chief executive of InfoSpace from 2000 to 2001, and of Accel-KKR Telecom based in San Francisco from 2001 to 2003, while serving as a non-executive director of Vodafone. He rejoined Vodafone as Chief Executive Designate on 1 April 2003 and was appointed on a permanent basis after the Company's annual general meeting on 30 July 2003.
Sarin was appointed at a time when the investment community wanted Vodafone to concentrate on managing its businesses efficiently and returning cash to shareholders, after its dramatic takeover driven expansion between 1999 and 2002. In 2004 he entered an auction for AT&T Wireless in the face of considerable hostility from analysts and shareholders, but withdrew when Cingular made an offer he did not think it was in Vodafone's interests to match.
He has since focused on emerging markets such as India, instead of developed markets such as Japan and others. Under his leadership, Vodafone successfully bid U$11.1 billion for 67% stake in the Indian mobile operator, Hutch. Now he will rebrand it as Vodafone and wants to bring it from the #4 operator in India to #1 or #2.
Sarin has also served as a director of The Gap, Inc., The Charles Schwab Corporation and Cisco Systems, Inc. in the United States, and has recently been appointed as a non-executive director of the Court of the Bank of England.
Sarin is married to Rummi Anand Sarin with two children.
