Arun Sarin

Arun Sarin (Hindi:अरुण सरीन) (born October 21, 1954 in Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh, India) was the CEO of Britain's Vodafone Group plc. On June 29, 2008, he announced his resignation as CEO of Vodafone Group. He is a senior adviser at the private equity firm KKR. He serves on the board of directors of Cisco Systems and Safeway, Inc. He received an honarary knighthood from the Queen at Buckingham Palace on March 10, 2010. He is an American citizen.
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Biography

Early life

Sarin graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur with a B.Tech degree in Metallurgical Engineering in 1975. He was a resident of Azad Hall. He received the B C Roy gold medal for the best all round graduating student in 1975. In 1978 he gained a MS in Engineering and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to this he did his schooling from Military School Bangalore, Bangalore. He excelled in studies, sports and co curricular activities. He was known for his sharp intelligence and good sporting skills especially in hockey and boxing in school.

Career

He started his career as a management consultant before moving, in 1984, to Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco. He was a director ofAirTouch from July 1995 and was President and Chief Operating Officer from February 1997 to June 1999. He was then Vodafone's Chief Executive Officer for the United States and Asia Pacific region until 15 April 2000, when Vodafone's U.S. interests were merged into Verizon Wireless. He subsequently became chief executive of InfoSpace from 2000 to 2001, and of Accel-KKR Telecom based in San Francisco from 2001 to 2003, while serving as a non-executive director of Vodafone. He rejoined Vodafone as Chief Executive Designate on 1 April 2003 and was appointed on a permanent basis after the Company's annual general meeting on 30 July 2003. On 27 May 2008, he announced his resignation (effective July) as CEO after Vodafone achieved record earnings.

He wrote a monthly note to all Vodafone staff, known as "Arun's Corner". This always ends with Arun's favoured epithet "Go Vodafone!"

Sarin was appointed at a time when the investment community wanted Vodafone to concentrate on managing its businesses efficiently and returning cash to shareholders, after its dramatic takeover driven expansion between 1999 and 2002. In 2004 he entered an auction for AT&T Wireless in the face of considerable hostility from analysts and shareholders, but withdrew when Cingular made an offer he did not think was in Vodafone's interests to match.

He has since focused on emerging markets such as India, Turkey,and Romania instead of developed markets such as Japan and others. Under his leadership, Vodafone successfully bid U$11.1 billion for 67% stake in the Indian mobile operator, Hutch. Now rebranded as Vodafone, Sarin wants to bring it from the #3 operator in India to #1 or #2. He is also focussing the company on total communications services including broadband, internet and wireless data.

Sarin has also served as a director of The Gap, Inc., The Charles Schwab Corporation and Cisco Systems, Inc. in the United States, and has recently been appointed as a non-executive director of the Court of the Bank of England.

Sarin will be retiring from Vodafone immediately after the company's AGM on July 29, 2008, when he will be succeeded by current Deputy-CEO Vittorio Colao.

During his tenure, Sarin, 53, accumulated 28.5 million shares and share options which he has yet to collect. He also has 14.5 million shares and share options which he has not yet cashed, according to the company's annual report and accounts.

After he steps down at the annual meeting, he will remain as a consultant on a "nominal" salary until his retirement next March. Assuming the company continues to perform over that period, when he leaves, his shares and options will be worth just over 22 million.

During his final year as chief executive, Sarin picked up 3,595,000 pounds in salary and bonus, taking his total earnings to more than 25 million according to a report by The Guardian newspaper.

The report said that in the past, Sarin had been allowed to re-invest his annual bonus, which was 2.13 million for the year to the end of March 2008, but because he is leaving the company he will collect it in cash.

Colao will be paid a 975,000 pounds salary, compared with the 1.3 million pounds Sarin received for the year to the end of March 2008, according to the group's annual report and accounts published.

Recent Reports suggest that Arun Sarin has been appointed as senior advisor to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. ("KKR