At the same time the company has named Mickey Mikitani, Rakuten Group chairman and CEO as its representative director, chairman and CEO, both appointments became effective as of August 7 2023.
The news follows the departure of representative director and CEO Tareq Amin, who left the role on August 7 2023. Sriwastawa assumes all of the roles and responsibilities of Amin.
According to various sources, Amin has left the due to 'personal reasons', said the company.
“The appointment of Sharad Sriwastawa is emblematic of Rakuten Symphony’s mission to reimagine telecom,” said Mikitani.
“With his proven track record at Rakuten Mobile, deep understanding of global technology trends and the evolving commercial opportunities for companies in the telco sphere, we are pleased to expand Sharad's role as a visionary leader who will guide the company’s expansion, capitalise on our business momentum, and solidify its future as an industry-disrupting enterprise.”
With over 30 years' experience in the mobile industry, as acting president Sriwastawa will be responsible for progressing Rakuten Symphony’s telco solutions including spearheading the global adoption of cloud-native Open RAN infrastructure and services.
Having joined Rakuten Mobile in September 2018, Sriwastawa assumed the role of chief technology officer in March 2022. Following this he was also appointed as group managing executive officer of Rakuten Group in April 2022.
Prior to the CTO role, Sriwastawa served as the head of connectivity platforms, where he oversaw the construction and industrialisation of cloud-native RAN.
Before his time at Rakuten, he held positions such as vice president of Airspan Networks Holdings, National Head of 3G at Reliance Communications, Northeast regional manager for T-Mobile USA, and a stint at Siemens Public Communications Network.
