Airtel's Gopal Vittal re-elected until 2028

Bharti Airtel's Executive Vice Chairman Gopal Vittal was re-elected to chair the GSMA Board of Directors for the 2027-28 term on Monday. This extension of his leadership through December 2028 marks his second consecutive term as chair of the global mobile industry body. The GSMA represents mobile operators and companies across the broader mobile ecosystem, focusing on industry policy, technology standards, and connectivity initiatives.

Vittal, who has served on the GSMA board for a decade and as chair since 2025, was re-elected alongside Vodafone Group CEO Margherita Della Valle as co-deputy chair. MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita was also re-elected to the position of deputy chair. Vittal emphasized that his top priorities for the next term are security, customer protection, and industry sustainability.

During his tenure, he established the Scam Use Case Library, a global shared forum leveraging artificial intelligence to combat scams and fraud by facilitating intelligence-sharing across markets and the mobile ecosystem.

Vittal holds executive positions at Airtel Africa, Airtel Payments Bank, and is a non-executive director on the BT Group board. Mupita has been president and CEO of MTN Group since September 2020, while Della Valle became Vodafone Group's chief executive in January 2023, previously serving as its group chief financial officer.