Google's chief business officer Nikesh Arora resigns from Airtel's board

Nikesh Arora, senior vice president and chief business officer at Google, has resigned from Bharti Airtel's board. He has been replaced by Dinesh Kumar Mittal, a former department of financial services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India official. Mittal has been appointed as an independent director, according to a PTI report.

Arora joined leading telecom operator Airtel's board as independent director in 2008, and has served the company for five-and-a-half years. At Google, he oversees revenue and customer operations, as well as marketing and partnerships. Since joining the search giant in 2004, he has held several positions with the company. Most recently, he led Google's global direct sales operations.

He also developed and managed the company's operations in the European, Middle Eastern and African markets and was responsible for creating and expanding strategic partnerships in those regions. Prior to joining Google, he was chief marketing officer (CMO) and a member of the management board at T-Mobile Europe. Earlier, he had also worked with companies like Deutsche Telekom, Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments.

Arora holds a master's degree from Boston College and an MBA from Northeastern University. A B.Tech in electrical engineering from Institute of Technology, Varanasi, he is also a CFA.

Early this year, Airtel Digital TV, the DTH service arm of Airtel became the first operator in the country to release a movie—Telugu film called Minukumanna Minugurulu—on the same day of its theatrical release.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)