S. Asokan

S Asokan is Executive Director Supply Chain, Bharti Airtel and is a member of the Bharti Airtel management board. He oversees a purchasing spend of over US$ 5 Billion, with responsibility for building strategic partner alliances, partner relations, global sourcing, product & service supply chain, process transformation and real estate infrastructure creation & management.

Asokan joined Bharti Airtel in 2006 and under his leadership the procurement function at Bharti Airtel transformed from a commercial buying unit into a full-fledged global supply chain organization. He has successfully led many productivity and process improvement initiatives including creation of a Shared Services Organization, known as ACE – Airtel Center of Excellence, which performs routine & repetitive basic supply chain tasks for all operational units of Bharti Airtel. He also drives key initiatives of global synergy, cost efficiency, innovative commercial modeling and partner governance.

Previously, Asokan was Executive Vice President of Tata Autocomp Systems, where he was spearheading auto component exports from India and was also responsible for Engineering Services business. As member of the Board of some of the Tata Group companies, he played a key role in improving efficiencies, business growth while enhancing governance.

Asokan also worked with Eicher Group of companies, where, in his tenure of over 17 years, he worked in various functions including Materials, Marketing and IT. Here he was instrumental in the success of business critical initiatives of global sourcing, cost optimization, operational efficiency, ancillarization & new product development. In all, his career spans over 32 years including a stint with Bharat Heavy Electricals in the formative years.

Asokan is an Honours graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Madurai University and a member of Cost and Works Accountants of India. He also attended leadership training programs from Ross School of Business Management, Michigan University.