Bharti Airtel, a leading emerging market telecom services provider, today announced the appointment of Michael Okwiri to head the Corporate Communications docket for Africa. In a statement  Bharti Airtel CEO, Manoj Kohli said Mr. Okwiri will be responsible for building and sustaining positive corporate reputation for Airtel Africa. He said the appointment was in line with Airtel’s business strategy of tapping into the diversity of Africa’s world-class talent pool.

Until his appointment, Mr. Okwiri was the Corporate Communications Director at Zain Kenya. He has over 15 years experience in Corporate Communications having served in a similar capacity at Kenya Airways when the Airline was voted African Airline of the Year in 2005 and the most respected company in East Africa for two years running. Prior to joining Kenya Airways, Mr. Okwiri also worked for the Kenya Commercial Bank and Coca Cola.  He will be based at the Airtel Africa Headquarters in Nairobi.

“Mr. Okwiri’s experience and invaluable knowledge of the African markets will be a great asset to the Airtel team as we embark on the journey of making Airtel the most loved brand in the daily lives of African people. We are going to entrust the responsibility of running the business to African professionals,” he said.

About Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa.  The company offers mobile voice & data services, fixed line, high speed broadband, IPTV, DTH, turnkey telecom solutions for enterprises and national & international long distance services to carriers. Bharti Airtel has been ranked among the six best performing technology companies in the world by BusinessWeek.  Bharti Airtel had over 189 million customers across its operations at the end of June 2010. To know more visit www.airtel.in