The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network, OneWeb that is owned by the UK government, Bharti Global and other strategic investors has announced the appointment of Srikanth Balachandran as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

A press release issued by Bharti Global says that Balachandran has joined from Bharti Global, where he was CFO since October 2018, prior to which he was CFO of Bharti Airtel for seven years.

Furthermore, the release states that under his financial stewardship, Airtel engaged in some intense M&A, grew its customer base five-fold to become the world’s No.3 mobile operator in subscriber numbers, and expanded its operations to 18 countries. Balachandran was closely associated with Airtel’s launch and scaling up of the Satellite TV business in India and the expansion of the firm's global business.

Neil Masterson, CEO of OneWeb, states, “Having had the opportunity to work with Srikanth in his most recent role as CFO of Bharti Global, the team at OneWeb has seen first-hand the wealth of experience and expertise he will bring to his new position at OneWeb. He will assume responsibility for helping us deliver our ambitious business plan, securing additional funding and establishing high standards of governance.”

A chartered accountant and a commerce graduate from the University of Madras, Balachandran started his career as a management trainee at Unilever, where he spent 23 years across leadership roles in Finance, Supply Chain and HR in India and UK.

Commenting on his appointment, Balachandran says, “OneWeb has an unparalleled opportunity to create value for communities, businesses and governments. Our plans to create a telecom network in space will be game-changing and will help realise OneWeb’s vision of 'internet access everywhere, for everyone’.

He adds that OneWeb has fantastic support from new investors in terms of funding, market access and customer reach and further said that the company will invest responsibly for customer experience and profitable growth.