Manoj Kohli

Manoj Kohli is the Country Head – SoftBank India, SoftBank Group International and is supporting over 20 portfolio companies of SoftBank Group and SoftBank Vision Fund such as OLA, OYO, Paytm, Lenskart, Grofers, Snapdeal, WeWork, Delhivery, InMobi, Firstcry, Uber etc in India. He is responsible for addressing the government, regulatory and public policy issues which help these companies to achieve their full business potential.

Earlier since 2015, Manoj Kohli was the Executive Chairman of the SB Energy – SoftBank Group which is already developing over 5GW of solar, wind and hybrid projects in the pipeline.
Previously Manoj was also the CEO and Managing Director of Bharti Airtel and his key contribution being building Airtel as no 3 telco in the world from 2m to over 400m customers. He led Bharti Airtel’s India operations for 100x scale-up before moving to International responsibility for 20 countries and was also responsible for leading the Africa operations which was acquired in June 2010. Manoj was the Chairman of the Industry Association, COAI and led formation of world’s largest tower company (Indus and Infratel) for achieving major infrastructure synergies for the industry.

Manoj started his career in 1979 with the DCM Shriram Group, where he initially led the HR function, followed by leadership positions in the Foods, Chemicals and Fertilizer businesses and assignments in Engineering projects, including Shriram Honda. He left as Vice President, responsible for the Air Conditioning & Refrigeration business unit of Tecumseh after a stint of 15 years. He subsequently worked for AlliedSignal / Honeywell as its Executive Director in charge of its new Industrial Park and operations in India. Manoj then joined Escotel, which he led for over 5 years as Executive Director and CEO to achieve market leadership in three important markets in india.

Overall, his 42 years of work experience is divided between the manufacturing, telecom, renewable energy and now digital sectors. Manoj has worked in US, Europe, China, Japan and build business in 20 countries in Asia pacific and Africa.

Manoj was the Chairman, Public Policy Committee of GSM Association (GSMA). In the past, he was a Board Member of GSMA in 2008 and in 2012. Manoj is also associated with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as Chairman of Future Business Group for attracting major investments into India. He was adjudged “Telecom Man of the Year” in 2000 by Media Transasia and “Telecom Person of the Year” in 2004 & “Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2020 by Voice & Data.

He is a member of the Academic Council of the Faculty of Management Studies and has been awarded the “Best Alumni Award” by Shriram College of Commerce, Delhi University. Manoj is also the distinguished fellow of Asia Society Australia to build long term trade and commerce partnership of both countries. He is also the distinguished fellow of the leading management School – Indian School of Business. He is on Board of Directors of IIT Indore (MP) and Chairman of Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Information Technologies, Kalyani (West Bengal)

Manoj holds degrees in Commerce, Law and MBA from Delhi University. Manoj also attended the “Executive Business Program” at the Michigan Business School and the “Advanced Management Program” at the Wharton Business School