• Former Telenor and Google exec Amol Phadke has a new role
• He is chief transformation officer at Tech Mahindra
• The systems integration giant has highlighted his AI and cloud experience

Six months after stepping down from his role as group CTO at Telenor, Amol Phadke has rejoined the telecom and tech sector fray as the newly appointed chief transformation officer at giant systems integration firm Tech Mahindra. 

Tech Mahindra, which generates a third of its $6.26bn annual turnover from the communications services sector, announced Phadke’s appointment in a disclosure note to investors via the Indian stock exchanges (BSE and NSE) on 2 June, which was his first day in the role. 

Tech Mahindra hasn’t outlined or specified Phadke’s responsibilities as yet, but the company did highlight in the stock market announcement that Phadke has “technology and business leadership in all areas of AI, cloud, software networks and IT, big tech and telecommunications industry, specialising in strategy definition, driving execution of large-scale engineering and innovation development/delivery units, and leading global multi-discipline teams.” Phadke will report to Tech Mahindra’s CEO, Mohit Joshi. 

It’s hard to imagine that AI isn’t going to play a major part in his new role. 

Phadke had been at Telenor for only a year when he stepped down for personal reasons, but marked his time at the Norwegian operator by focusing on an AI-first strategy. This saw him broker key relationships with the likes of AWS, Google Cloud and Nvidia and make Telenor one of the first telcos to announce, deploy and launch services from a sovereign AI factory, which is now one of the key trends in the industry. He had also outlined a tech strategy for the operator that hinged on key technology developments – see Telenor CTO unveils four ‘gamechangers’.

Prior to his stint at Telenor he was managing director and general manager of the global communications service provider industry vertical at Google Cloud, which is a major partner of Tech Mahindra. Before that Phadke led the global network services team at Accenture, spent three years as a senior director at Alcatel-Lucent, and worked for nine years at BT, where he was a member of the team that developed the UK operator’s 21st Century Network (21CN) architecture.

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV