Marten Pieters steps down as Vodafone India CEO, COO Sunil Sood to take over

Marten Pieters, the Vodafone India Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, will be stepping down from his post on 1 April, 2015 and will be succeeded by Sunil Sood, the current chief operating officer of the telecom major. Pieters will continue to remain on the Board of Vodafone India in a non-executive capacity. “It has been a pleasure and a privilege to lead Vodafone India and I would like to thank all of my colleagues for their passion and commitment in support of our goals over the last six years. I am delighted to hand over to Sunil; we have worked closely together throughout my time with Vodafone and I could not wish for a better successor,” said Pieters in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_2059289” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Pieters, 61, has been at the head of Vodafone in India since February 2009[/caption] Pieters 61, who had earned the nickname of crusader for the telecom industry, had been at the head of Vodafone in India since February 2009, making him the longest serving chief of any Indian telecom company and the only one to have seen all the spectrum auctions in India. Under his leadership, Vodafone India doubled revenues and added more than 100 million customers, increased market share and launched data services used by more than 57 million customers. Pieters was also appointed as the Chairman of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) in 2014. Meanwhile, 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. Sood 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.