Sunil Sood to replace Marten Pieters as Vodafone India CEO

Marten Pieters will be stepping down as managing director and chief executive officer of Vodafone India from April 1. Vodafone India chief operating officer Sunil Sood will succeed him. Pieters, however, will continue to remain on the Board of Vodafone India in a non-executive capacity.

Serpil Timuray, Group CEO for the Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific region, Vodafone adds, "The business will remain in good hands with Sunil who has also been integral to the growth of the company and the development of its capabilities, helping to drive consistent results through both good and challenging years."

Vittorio Colao, group chief executive, Vodafone, comments, "Marten will stand down from his role as chief executive with warm thanks from everyone in Vodafone. I look forward to working with Sunil to build on the successes of a business widely admired in India and internationally." Sood's successor as chief operating officer will be announced in due course.

For the record, Sood joined Vodafone India's predecessor business, Hutch, in 2000 and has held roles leading the company's operations in Gujarat, Kolkata and Chennai. He had previously worked for Pepsi in a range of Indian and international leadership roles. He graduated with a B.Tech from IIT (Delhi) and PGDM from IIM (Kolkata) and is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.

Pieters was appointed as Vodafone India MD and CEO in February 2009 after an international telecommunications career, which included Board-level roles with KPN, Celtel and Millicom. Under his leadership, the company said, Vodafone India doubled revenues, added more than 100 million customers, increased market share and launched data services used by more than 57 million customers.