Sandip Das

Sandip Das (born 11 January 1958) is the Managing Director of Reliance Jio Infocomm.[1] He was formerly the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Maxis Communications Berhad, the largest telecommunications company in Malaysia with overseas operations in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

A well-known figure in the telecoms space [2] 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. In May 2013, he returned to India to head Mukesh Ambani's 4G venture.

Early life

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.[2]

He holds a First Class Mechanical Engineering degree from the Regional Engineering College,Rourkela (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.[3]

Career

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.[3] 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.[4]

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.[5] 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.[3] 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”.[6]

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.[3][6]

Besides being the Executive Director and CEO of Maxis Communications Berhad, Sandip also served as Director on the Board of Aircel in India. In addition, Sandip also served the Boards of Sri Lanka Telecom PLC and Mobitel (Sri Lanka) and was also a board member of Bridge Mobile Pte Ltd (Bridge Alliance), a strategic alliance of regional telecommunications provider.[3] 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.[4]

In November 2009, Sandip led the Maxis’s re-listing on the Malaysian Stock Exchange (Bursa Malaysia) in what was Southeast Asia’s biggest IPO worth over US$3 billion.[7] In 2010, Sandip also led Maxis controlled subsidiary, Aircel in India in the successful third generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auctions where Aircel successfully bid for 3G spectrum in 13 of the 22 telecom circles in India [8] and BWA spectrum in 8 circles.[9]

In May 2013, he returned to India to head Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries 4G telecom entity, Reliance Jio Infocomm as Managing Director & CEO.

Awards & recognitions

Sandip is listed in the Global Telecoms Business GTB Power100 list as one of the 100 most powerful people in the telecoms industry worldwide for three consecutive years in 2010, 2011,2012 and 2014.[10] In 2012, Sandip was also voted Best CEO in Malaysia by Finance Asia Best Managed Companies Awards 2012.[11] In addition he was recognised as one of the "Spartans of Telecom" by MyMobile (telecom business editorial), credited for bringing global experience to the Indian telecom field.[12] During his tenure with Hutchison India, Sandip was voted the “CEO of the Year” by Mid Day Publications. Under his leadership, Maxis Malaysia has been recognised as one of Malaysia's most valuable brand and Aircel India twice won “The Most Respected Telecom Company” awarded by the Business World.[3]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sandip-das/2b/27/439. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Upclose and personal with Sandip Das". Biz.thestar.com.my. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 "About Us - Who We Are - People - Senior Management". Maxis. 2009-09-25. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Sandip Das. "Sandip Das: Executive Profile & Biography - BusinessWeek". Investing.businessweek.com. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  5. ↑ 6 Dec, 2006, 01.41AM IST,TNN (2006-12-06). "Sandip Das to take over as Maxis Malaysia CEO - Telecom - News By Industry - News - The Economic Times". Economictimes.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Hutch’s Sandip Das will be Maxis CEO - Money - DNA". Dnaindia.com. 2006-12-05. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  7. ↑ "Maxis returns in biggest IPO | Daily Express Newspaper Online, Sabah, Malaysia". Dailyexpress.com.my. 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  8. ↑ "Bharti, RComm & Aircel big winners in 3G auction". Financialexpress.com. 2010-05-20. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  9. ↑ "India's Reliance Industries is surprise winner in BWA spectrum auction - International Business Times". Ibtimes.com. 2010-06-11. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
  10. ↑ "Global Telecoms Business Power100". globaltelecombusiness.com. 2010-09-30. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  11. ↑ "Best CEO".
  12. ↑ "The Spartans of Telecom". mymobile.co.in.

External links