Sandip Das (born 11 January 1958) is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Maxis Communications Berhad, the largest telecommunications company in Malaysia with overseas operations in India and Indonesia.
A well-known figure in the telecoms space [1] Sandip Das joined Maxis in January 2007 after an impressive track record with Hutchison Essar Limited (now known as Vodafone Essar Limited), one of India’s largest mobile operators in India, where he started its operations from scratch in 1994 and left the company as its Deputy Managing Director.
Contents |
Sandip Das was born in 1958 in Cuttack, a city in Orissa, an east coast state in India. His father, an aeronautical engineer placed high importance on education and as such, Sandip and his two younger brothers were educated in the finest schools.[1]
He holds a First Class Mechanical Engineering degree from the Regional Engineering College (now known as National Institute of Technology), Rourkela in India and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi.[2]
Sandip began his career with the Indian consumer durable giant Usha International, Shriram Group, where he started as a Management Trainee and left as Joint Divisional Manager after 10 years of service.[2] He then spent 5 years as the Franchise Head of Toyota cars and Hino trucks with the Al Futtaim Motors of the Al Futtaim Group in Dubai, UAE.[3]
Subsequently, after returning to India, Sandip joined Hutchison Essar, then known as Hutchison Max Telecom where he started the company’s operations in 1994 and was its first employee.[4] He spent 13 years in the company, including his time as CEO of Hutchison Max Telecom’s paging division,subsequently made COO of Hutchison Max Telecom in June 1998 where HMTL was an established market leader in Mobile Services and later as the Deputy Managing Director and Director on the Board of Hutchison Essar Limited.[2] During his time with Hutchison, Sandip was a well-known and respected figure in India for his impressive track record in building the company. In an interview in May 2009, Sandip said, “I started with Hutchison in 1994. When I left, it had 25 million subscribers. Two months later, the company was sold for US$22 billion to Vodafone. I feel very proud of this achievement as I started the company’s operations from scratch”.[5]
In 2007, following the likes of Vodafone’s Arun Sarin and Orange’s Sanjiv Ahuja, India boasted another helmsman in the International Telecoms Space when Sandip Das was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Maxis Communications Berhad, the largest telecommunications operator in Malaysia.[2][5]
Besides being the Executive Director and CEO of Maxis Communications Berhad, Sandip also serves as Director on the Board of Aircel in India. In addition, Sandip also serves the Boards of Sri Lanka Telecom PLC and Mobitel (Sri Lanka) and is also a board member of Bridge Mobile Pte Ltd (Bridge Alliance), a strategic alliance of regional telecommunications provider.[2] He also served for 2 years on the Board of the Global GSM Development Fund and was the Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Service Industry Panel.[3]
In November 2009, Sandip led the company’s re-listing on the Malaysian Stock Exchange (Bursa Malaysia) in what was Southeast Asia’s biggest IPO worth over US$3 billion.[6] Recently, Sandip also led Maxis controlled subsidiary, Aircel in India in the successful third generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auctions where Aircel bagged 3G spectrum in 13 of the 22 telecom circles in India [7] and BWA spectrum in 8 circles.[8]
During his tenure with Hutchison India, Sandip was voted the “CEO of the Year” by Mid Day Publications and under his leadership, Aircel Limited in India twice won “The Most Respected Telecom Company” awarded by the Business World.[2] In 2010 and 2011, Sandip was listed in the Global Telecoms Business GTB Power100 list as one of the 100 most powerful people in the telecoms industry worldwide for two consecutive years [9] and in addition was recognised as one of the "Spartans of Telecom" by MyMobile (telecom business editorial), credited for bringing global experience to the Indian telecom field[10]. In 2011, Sandip was also voted the Top 3 Best CEOs in Malaysia by Finance Asia Best Managed Companies Awards 2011 [11].