Speaker Bio
Former Chief Executive Officer of Vantage Towers AG
Director General Designate of GSMA
Vivek Badrinath was CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of Vantage Towers AG from the creation of the Company in 2020 through its IPO in 2021 to its sale to Private Equity in 2023. Vantage Towers manages 88,000 telecom towers throughout 8 European countries.
Ahead of this role, Vivek Badrinath joined Vodafone and the Executive Committee as CEO of Africa Middle East Asia Pacific in October 2016. He oversaw Vodafone’s operations in the Vodacom Group, India, Australia, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya and New Zealand. Vivek is also the Interim CEO of Vodafone Business.
Prior to that, he was the Deputy Chief Executive at the international hospitality group Accor Hotels where he was responsible for marketing, digital solutions, distribution and information systems.
He was previously Deputy Chief Executive with Orange, in charge of Innovation, Marketing and Technology. He has successively held positions in Technology (CTO of Orange Mobile, subsequently Group CTO), Enterprise (CEO of Orange Business Services).
Between 2000 and 2004 he ran the Indian operations of Thomson. He was a Board member of Nokia and member of the Audit Committee between 2014 and 2016. He was a Board member of Accor group from 2016 to 2018, and a Board member of ATOS from 2019 to 2023.
He is a recipient of the French Legion of Honor and of the National Order of Merit.