Reliance Communication's top deck set for reshuffle, as 3 execs leave

Reliance Communications (RCom) is set for a reshuffle at its top deck with three executives about to leave the nation's fourth largest telecom carrier, including one who is retiring, people familiar with the matter said. 

Chief marketing officer Nilanjan Mukherjee has resigned to set up a startup in the value-added services space, said one of the people. Along with him, Suresh Sahu, a human resources director based in Mumbai, has also quit. 

The company's regulatory and compliance chief CS Rao is retiring and scheduled to leave by the end of this month. Rao will be replaced by Punit Garg, head of its India enterprise business, the company said in an email to employees. 

RCom declined to comment, while these executives were unreachable for comment. 

The company, however, denied speculation in some quarters that chief executive Vinod Sawhny, who joined in February this year on a two-year contract, may leave before completing the term. One of the people said he in fact may even get an extension given that the company's performance has been improving steadily under the watch of Sawhny and consumer business CEO Gurdeep Singh. 

Earlier this year, RCom undertook a restructuring to separate its CDMA and GSM businesses. Mukherjee was widely believed to be in the running to head the CDMA operations. However, the company brought Sawhny on as CEO and Mukherjee continued to hold the title of chief marketing officer. At the time, RCom also inducted Amit Das from Vodafone as chief of human resources. 

Garg has been one of the longest serving presidents at RCom. He was the chief of its global operations and has been at the firm since 2001, nearly five years before the Ambani brothers split the Reliance group leaving RCom with Anil Ambani and the petroleum business with Mukesh Ambani. 

When the company in February named Bill Barney to head Reliance Globalcom as chief executive of the international unit, Garg was left with heading the India enterprise business. 

Sahu, for the bulk of his near 10 years at Reliance, has been at the company's global business. 

RCom underwent a substantial restructuring earlier in December 2011 when it inducted Shamik Das from Sistema Shyam TeleServices as chief operating officer, under Syed Safawi who was chief executive
.