Newsmaker: Sandip Das

Hello? goodbye!

Sandip Das

A forthcoming issue of Elle Decor will splash the Malabar Hill residence of Sandip Das in its pages, but Das himself may no longer be in residence.

It is possible that by then he would be immersed in doing up the interiors of his new home in Kuala Lumpur, just as he did in Mumbai.

For Das is the third Indian after Vodafone's CEO Arun Sarin, and France Telecom's brand Orange CEO Sanjiv Ahuja, to be on the top management of a global telecom company. If Das's achievement is the more enviable, it is because he was with an Indian telecom company before joining Maxis Communications Bhd as its CEO.

"I am all packed to leave, and I'll by gone by January 15 or so," he says. "I am both excited and sad "" excited because of the new offer, but sad because I am leaving Hutchison Essar, a company I had worked with for 13 years."

When the news of his resignation spread, Das was inundated with calls. The whole day he kept fielding calls about his new venture, his hopes, the new horizons, and promises to be kept.

A day later the phone went unanswered, and even the message box informed callers that it was full. Das had literally gone underground. "I was busy," he apologises now, "it isn't that I didn't want to answer the phone, just that I was probably on another line, or extension." And adds with a chuckle, "After all, you called to ask about me and not the usual questions on Hutchison Essar's IPO."

A mechanical engineer and an MBA, Das has worked with the DCM Group in Delhi and the Apothelem Group in Dubai as marketing manager, opening his telecom stint with Hutch in 1993.

This was a time when Hutch was taking baby steps into the giant world of telecom world, and he himself was a novice to the field.

Das, who has since served in various capacities such as regional head, executive director and chief executive officer of the company, was named deputy managing director in November 2004, responsible for operations, network expansion, value-added services and investment plans among others.

At this time he was also closely involved with Hutch's adorable television commercial built around a small boy and his dog, a pug.

All over the country sales of pugs shot up, and the Das family too succumbed to the pressure and bought a pug that many in his immediate circle wanted to name Hutch, but which his own family, sensibly, named Stubby.

Colleagues say Das rose to his post through sheer hard work and determination. His wife, Poornima, is less charitable, and doesn't mind goading him about his laziness as far as exercise is concerned "" "even though he loves badminton". He has other interests too, such as painting and singing while at home, or tennis and football outside it.

He might choose to remain silent when it comes to Hutch's initial public offering, or the Hutch-Essar issue, but throw a wayward comment on old Hindi film songs and he'll bite the bait. Favourites? Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh; Bach, Mozart, Beethoven. Is there anything he can't do? ""Dancing", says Poornima; "I love dancing and he doesn't".