Who is Ganesh Lakshminarayanan? All You Need to Know About New Tata Communications CEO

Tata Communications on January 21 announced the appointment of industry veteran Ganesh Lakshminarayanan as its new Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). His permanent appointment will come into effect on a future date, subject to approvals from stock exchanges and regulatory authorities.

Lakshminarayanan will succeed AS Lakshminarayanan, the current MD and CEO of the company, who is retiring on April 13, 2026.

Ganesh Lakshminarayanan brings with him over three decades of global management experience, having worked across multinational corporations, Indian enterprises, and B2B technology start-ups. His career spans leadership roles in enterprise technology, telecom, consulting, and advisory services.

Before joining Tata Communications, Lakshminarayanan served as MD and Group Vice President for ServiceNow India and the SAARC region, where he was responsible for driving market expansion and customer growth for the enterprise software firm.

He is best known in India for his leadership stint at Bharti Airtel, where he was the CEO of Airtel Business and earlier headed Airtel’s enterprise business unit. Under his leadership, the enterprise segment saw strong growth, recording a 50% expansion over three years and increasing its market share from 30% to 33%. The business unit also received Airtel’s Chairman’s Award for Best Business Unit for the financial year 2022–23.

Lakshminarayanan has also held senior roles outside telecom. He served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Capillary Technologies until 2020 and later took on advisory positions at Ernst & Young (EY) and Sequoia Capital, working closely with technology-driven businesses.

Earlier in his career, he spent more than 12 years at Dell Technologies, holding several leadership positions. According to his LinkedIn profile, he served as President and MD of Dell India, and later as Vice President for Asia Pacific and Japan–Sales Operations until 2014.

On the academic front, Lakshminarayanan holds an MBA with high distinction from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Guindy Engineering College, Chennai, graduating as a gold medalist.

Beyond corporate leadership, he has been elected twice to the NASSCOM executive council, served on the FICCI council, and is a founding member of Social Venture Partners Bengaluru.