Arun Sarin is the former Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Group Plc. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1975. He was awarded the BC Roy Gold Medal for the best all-round graduating student. In 1978 he earned an MS in Engineering and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley. During his tenure as CEO of Vodafone Group Plc, he was the driving force behind expanding into emerging markets like, India, Turkey and Africa and growing the data and internet businesses globally. Vodafone grew to become a global brand with over 300 million customers, produced record revenues and profits and had a market capitalization of $150 billion under Mr. Sarin’s leadership. He began his career as a management consultant before joining the telecoms firm, Pacific Telesis Group in 1984. He was instrumental in the development and expansion of the company’s mobile businesses. He held a series of senior management positions with Pacific Telesis. Following the demerger from Pacific Telesis Group to form AirTouch Communications, Arun was appointed Senior Vice President Corporate Strategy and Development. He was later appointed President of AirTouch Communications where he was responsible for the company’s mobile and paging operations in 14 countries. He was a key negotiator in the successful acquisition of AirTouch by Vodafone Group Plc. He is currently a non-executive director of Accenture, Cisco, Charles Schwab and Ola, India. He has served on numerous other Boards including The Gap, Safeway and the Court of the Bank of England. Arun also served as a Senior Advisor to KKR, a global private equity group. In 2010 he received an Honorary Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. Mr. Sarin has received numerous awards, including being named Global Indian of the Year in 2007 by CNN/IBN.