Unilever wants Mittal on board

Sunil Mittal, group chairman and chief executive officer of Bharti Enterprises, will be initiated on to the board of London and Rotterdam-based fast moving consumer goods major, Unilever.

Mittal’s name has been proposed for the position of non-executive director, Unilever said in a statement today. He will be proposed for induction in May 2011, the firm said.

The founder of the $7.2 billion (or Rs 32,400 crore) Bharti group will be the second Indian business leader after Infosys’ founder chairman, N R Narayanamurthy, to be proposed to the Unilever board.

Narayanamurthy was inducted into the board in May 2007 as a non-executive director, a position he held for three years.

Michael Treschow, chairman, Unilever, said, “I am pleased that Sunil Bharti Mittal has agreed to be proposed to join the board. He is distinguished in his field and will further strengthen the expertise and independence of the board, as well as broadening its diversity. I am sure Sunil will add considerably to the business.”

A graduate in science and arts from Punjab University, Mittal began his business, of producing bicycle parts, in 1976. He soon moved to importing portable electric power generators from Suzuki Motors, Japan, before trying his hand at assembling push-button phones. This foray into assembling phones in the 1980s was a precursor to his telecom foray in the 1990s. By the time Bharti Cellular Limited was formed in 1995, to provide wireless services in Delhi, Mittal was a seasoned entrepreneur producing cordless phones to fax machines to other telecom gear.

He was one of the first entrepreneurs to understand the power of mobile telephony in India. His firm Bharti Airtel is the largest telecom operator in India with a subscriber base of 143 million.

The firm today has a footprint both in Asia and Africa, the latter by virtue of acquiring the operations of Kuwait-based telecom operator Zain. The acquisition of the African assets of Zain this year made Bharti the fifth largest mobile phone company by subscribers, globally.