“Our new Director - Regulatory and External Affairs will be P Balaji. He joins us from Nokia India, where he was the Managing Director till recently,” said a spokesperson at Vodafone India.
Vodafone India’s current Resident Director (Regulatory Affairs and Government Relations) TV Ramachandran, and Rohit Adya, Director – External Affairs, are set to retire over the next few months, the company said in a statement.
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“We are using this opportunity to fine-tune our organization structure by merging the Regulatory and External Affairs functions for there are strong areas of synergy between them. Both Ramachandran and Adya have made tremendous contribution in their respective roles and built capable and professional teams, well equipped to take the organizational agenda forward,” said the Vodafone India spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Adya will continue to serve the company in the capacity of chairman of the Vodafone Foundation and will be involved in setting up the CSR activities of Vodafone in India and will drive the governance around this important domain, according to a company statement.
Balaji, who quit Nokia India in August this year, had joined Nokia India in October 2012 as managing director. He was instrumental in driving the growth behind Lumia, building the X family of phones and strengthening Nokia's retail execution in the country.
Balaji, a B.Tech in electronics and communication from the University of Roorkee (now IIT-Roorkee), had started his career with Tata Steel, Jamshedpur as a graduate trainee. He has also worked in AT&T Switching Systems, a joint venture between AT&T and Tata Group, and with Tata Lucent Technologies, according to media reports. He also has an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Balaji had also worked with Ericsson India looking after its corporate affairs and communication, and had then joined Sony Ericsson India as the managing director prior to his stint at Nokia India.