Sunil Bharti Mittal
Sunil Mittal was appointed a Non-Executive Director of Unilever in May 2011.
Sunil Bharti Mittal was born in Punjab, India, in 1957 and graduated from Punjab University in 1976. He started his first business at the age of 18, working in several industries before gaining experience in the telecoms sector. He was therefore well positioned to take a pioneering role when the mobile phone industry reached India and the first network licenses were auctioned.
Today Bharti Enterprises – which he founded and where he serves as chairman and Group CEO – is one of India’s leading business groups, with interests not only in telecoms but also in retail, financial services, real estate and agri-products. Bharti has joint ventures with several global leaders: Singtel, Wal-Mart and Del Monte.
While retaining his diverse business interests, Sunil also fulfils various government and civic roles in India and internationally. He is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry and serves on its sub-committee on promoting financial inclusion. In 2007–08, he served as president of the Confederation of Indian Industry. He was co-chairman of the World Economic Forum at Davos in 2007 and is a member of its International Business Council. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Leadership Council of the Climate Group.
A number of his public appointments are in the telecoms industry. He is on the Telecom Board of the International Telecommunication Union (the UN agency for ICT), where he is also a commissioner of the Broadband Commission.
Sunil also serves on the Boards of a number of renowned academic institutions. He is on the Dean’s Board of Advisors of Harvard Business School (HBS) and a member of the Governing Body of the London Business School (LBS).
Sunil has a strong sense of corporate responsibility and, in 2000, set up the Bharti Foundation, which provides education to over 30,000 under-privileged children in rural India through a far-reaching schools programme.
Recognition includes the Global Economy Prize 2009 awarded by the Kiel Institute in Germany and the Global Vision Award 2008 by the US–India Business Council. He is a recipient of the Padma Bhushan , one of India’s highest civilian awards. He holds honorary degrees from the University of Leeds in the UK and the Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology in India.
He is married with three children and lives in New Delhi, India.
