NAIROBI: Shivan Bhargava is now the Managing Director after serving as CEO since Rene Meza's exit. Announcing the appointment, Jayant Khosla, CEO (Airtel Africa Anglophone Region), said: “Kenya has always been a key market with great potential for growth within the region. Our leadership and management team in Kenya is made up of exceptionally talented, experienced, passionate and committed individuals. Shivan's experience and qualifications will add value to the team and Airtel's future plans to deliver innovative and best-in-class mobile services. I wish him success in his new assignment.” Airtel has been keen to raise market competitiveness, this can be viewed as a strategic move towards that goal as they were looking for an individual who is a decision maker (one who will make decisions speedily) and one who understands the Kenyan telecom market. “I believe they were looking for a decision maker given Kenya's dynamic telecom market that requires decisions to be made speedily,” said Ashif Kassam, the Managing Director RSM Ashvir (consultancy firm). Earlier in August, Michael Okwiri, VP in charge of Corporate Communications at the Africa office had stated that Airtel was not going to hire a new CEO as Bhargava would be running the Kenyan operations.