WASHINGTON, Mar 27—The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace announced today that Sunil Mittal, chairman and managing director of the Bharti Group, has joined its Board of Trustees.
Making the announcement, the president of the Endowment, Jessica T. Mathews, said:
“We are honored to welcome Sunil Mittal to the Carnegie Endowment’s Board of Trustees. As we transform the Endowment into the first multinational—and ultimately global—think tank to find solutions to increasingly global problems, I can think of few better people than Sunil to help us achieve that goal. As one of India’s leading and most innovative entrepreneurs with global, Asian, and American partners, Sunil is a perfect example of the next generation of leaders who understand the importance of forging partnerships to address future needs.”
Sunil Mittal is from the town of Ludhiana in Punjab. He started his first business in 1976 at the age of eighteen and was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to identify the potential in the mobile telecom business. In just ten years he, along with a highly professional team of managers, including his two siblings, built the Bharti Group―one of India’s leading business groups, including the country’s largest mobile phone company. He is the founder, chairman, and group CEO of Bharti.
Mittal said: “I am delighted to join the distinguished ranks of the Carnegie’s Board of Trustees at such an exciting time in the Endowment’s century-long history. The recent redefinition of its role and mission—to become the first global think tank—is a vital one which I support fully. The many problems confronting the world can only be addressed properly through strong international partnership and collaboration.”
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace launched its “New Vision” on February 6, 2007, adding operations in Beijing, Beirut, and Brussels to its existing longstanding offices in Moscow and Washington, to form effective, independent international partnerships through which to address global issues.
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Sunil Bharti Mittal is the founding chairman and group CEO of Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s leading business groups with interests in telecom, financial services, retail, manufacturing, realty, and agribusiness. Mittal started his career at eighteen after graduating from Punjab University in India. He founded Bharti a year later, in 1976. Today, at 51, he heads a successful enterprise, which has a market capitalization of over U.S. $25 billion and employs over 30,000 people.
Mittal has been conferred with many awards and citations, including being recognized with the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian awards. He is a member of the Indian prime minister’s Council on Trade and Industry and is also a past president of the Confederation of Indian Industry the premier industry body in India (2007–2008). The U.S.–India Business Council honored Sunil Mittal with the "Global Vision” Award 2008. He also received the GSM Association Chairman’s Award for 2008. In 2006, he was chosen Asia Businessman of the Year by Fortune and Asia Pacific CEO of the Year by Frost & Sullivan. Sunil has been named Business Leader of the Year by several important India media outlets, including the Economic Times, Business Standard, and NDTV Profit. He was also the Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004.
Sunil was co-chairman of the World Economic Forum in 2007 in Davos and is a member of its International Business Council. He is a member of the Leadership Council of the Climate Group. He is a member of two premier international bodies—the International Advisory Committee to the NYSE Euronext Board of Directors and the International Business Advisory Council of London. Sunil is also on the Telecom Board of the International Telecommunication Union, the leading UN Agency for Information and Communication Technology. He has also been Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Seychelles in India (August 1999–June 2008).
Sunil serves as a member of the Board of Governors of three premier management and technology institutes in India: the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow; the Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai; and the Indian School of Business. He co-chairs the Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and Management at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is also a member of several academic bodies: the Harvard Business School India Advisory Board, the Cambridge India Partnership Advisory Board, and the INSEAD Global India Council.
Sunil is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs, Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. He is an honorary fellow of The Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers. He has been conferred with the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by the Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School.
- For more information on the Carnegie Endowment's New Vision, click here.
- Click here for a full list of Carnegie's Board of Trustees.
- Press Contact: Trent Perrotto, 202/939-2372, tperrotto@ceip.org
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