Rajeev Batra
Chief Information Officer
Bennett Coleman
CIO of the Year: Media
It is challenging to take care of as diverse business interests as the most prominent media conglomerate Bennett Coleman has - newspapers, magazines, books, TV, radio, music, Internet and so on. Backed by 30 years of a highly accomplished career, Rajeev Batra is the backbone of the business interests and has driven the strategic and tactical adoption of IT across the Times Group. From enterprise architecture blueprint to emerging technologies to greenfield setup, he has deftly handled it all. Earlier, as the Chief Architect of IT at Bharti Airtel, he orchestrated the landmark strategic outsourcing engagement with IBM.
Rajeev Batra
Chief Information Officer, Bennett Coleman
Rajeev is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and member of the EC (Executive Committee) at Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd. (BCCL) - the largest publishing company in India and South-Asia. BCCL and its subsidiaries (called The Times Group), are present in every existing media platform -- newspapers, magazines, books, TV, radio, internet, event management, outdoor display, music, movies and more and includes The Times of India - largest English publication in the world. With more than 30 years of industry experience, Rajeev is responsible for driving the strategic and tactical adaptation of Information Technology at the Times Group.
Prior to joining BCCL, Rajeev was with MTS India, a JV of Sistema JSFC, Russia and Shyam Telecom, as Chief Information Officer and Member of Management Committee. He is also on Advisory Board of Sistema JSFC investment, Sistema Asia Fund in India.
Earlier, Rajeev has held strategic positions as President, Group IT in Reliance ADA Group and Chief Architect & VP at Bharti Airtel. He played a pivotal role in USD 3.2 Bn Bharti–IBM strategic IT outsourcing deal, which became a Harvard Business School case study. With work experience across India and USA, he has worked for companies like eVector Inc. (Intel-Reuters portfolio company), Escotel (now Vodafone-Idea), Dell Perot Systems (now Dell-EMC), Samtech Infonet and DHL Worldwide (Airfreight Ltd.).
Rajeev is recognized in the industry for his outstanding professional accomplishments and contributions and has been felicitated with several prestigious industry awards and recognitions. He is also a thought leader and is frequently invited to present his views as speaker in several public forums and as author in publications of repute.
Rajeev has contributed industry specific views and shared experiences in public forums like CII, TMF (Tele Management Forum), Economic Times ETIG, Accenture GCF, CNBC, Bloomberg UTV etc., as well as several publications of repute.
Rajeev has a bachelor’s degree in engineering (B.E. Electronics), with University rank and a post-graduate diploma in advance computer programming & systems analysis. He has also done General Management course for executives (Airtel Leadership), at IIM Ahmedabad.