Jai Prakash Menon

Dr. Jai Menon is currently the Director for Technology Services and Customer Service at Bharti Airtel and the Group CIO of the Bharti Enterprise Group.

At Bharti Airtel, he is a member of the Airtel Management Board and drives the Customer Service and IT charters across all lines of Airtel businesses. He is currently leading the transformation of Airtel’s service culture across the customer life cycle for both B2C and B2B businesses.

He has developed macro-outsourcing S1 utility IT models for Bharti Airtel, an innovation that is now being adopted by several other players in the industry. He is responsible for building strategic technology platforms and innovation alliances (e.g. with Google, Microsoft, Apple Inc., RIM/BlackBerry and Verisign) for new product development, data platforms, VAS and convergent content, applications and commerce experiences across three screens (mobile, PC and TV).

Early career

Jai Menon started his career at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Labs, USA and became an IBM executive, he was executive Director in IBM’s Software Group heading worldwide research-to-market business for rich media.

From there he joined AT&T (formerly BellSouth) as a Corporate Officer and Executive Vice President and managed a portfolio of growth businesses and strategic alliances. At AT&T, he also was Chief Technology Officer for IT across all lines of businesses.

Bharti Airtel

Jai Menon joined Bharti Airtel in 2002 as Corporate Director and launched Airtel’s Enterprise Business as its Joint President in 2004. Subsequently, he was appointed the Director for IT across all lines of businesses. In 2007, he was also made the Group CIO for Bharti Enterprises, which is the parent company of Bharti Airtel.

As Group CIO, he provides IT leadership for all businesses of Bharti Enterprises, including retail (with Walmart), financial services (with AXA), manufacturing and distribution (Bharti Teletech), agriculture (with Delmonte), software (Comviva), tower infrastructure (Infratel, Indus), learning and resourcing (Centum) and the Bharti Foundation.

Education

Jai Menon received his PhD (1992) and MS (1989) from Cornell University (USA), B.Tech (1986, first rank with IIT Medal) from IIT, Delhi (India). In India, he received national distinctions, including All India Merit Lists, Mathematics Olympiad, National Talent and Science Talent scholarships. He has completed various executive management programs, including Harvard, Wharton (U Penn) and Sloan (MIT) Schools of Business.

Research

He has authored over sixty international research publications, filed over thirty US patents, served on the editorial board of several international journals and has chaired several international conferences. He serves (or has served) on global advisory boards of several technology companies/bodies including the TM Forum, Center for CIO Leadership (New York), GSMA Executive Management Committee, IBM Corporation, Oracle Corporation and Teradata. He is a member of IEEE, ASME, ACM, Phi Kappa Phi as well as committees in India’s leading industry bodies, including NASSCOM and CII.

Awards

  • Informationweek Global CIO 50 (USA, 2009)
  • Forbes Outsourcing Excellence Award (USA, 2007)
  • GSMA Global Mobile Award (Barcelona, 2008)
  • TechForum Global IT Award (USA, 2008)
  • Telecom Asia Award (Hong Kong, 2009)
  • IDC Asia-Pacific Enterprise Innovation Award (Singapore, 2009)
  • Most Influential Technology Leader (India, 2009)
  • NASSCOM-CNBC IT Award (India, 2008)
  • CIO Hall of Fame Award (India, 2009)
  • NASSCOM National IT Innovation Award (from the Prime Minister of India, 2007)
  • MIS Asia IT Awards (Singapore, 2006, 2005)
  • CIO Top 100 awards (India-2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, Singapore-2004)
  • CIO security award (India, 2008)
  • CIO infrastructure awards (India – 2007, 2006)
  • Best new software products at PC Expo (New York, 2000)
  • National Design Engineering Award (Chicago, 1995)
  • ASME Distinguished Engineering Awards (USA, 1996–98)