Marten Pieters, CEO of Celtel International BV, will take over as chief executive of Vodafone Essar. Chief executive, Asim Ghosh, will retire on March 31, 2009. Marten Pieters, is currently a director on the board of Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular.

Pieters was earlier the CEO of Celtel International BV, which is now the second-largest African mobile operator.

Ghosh will continue as a non-executive member on the Board of Vodafone Essar. Celtel International is stated to be the leading African mobile operator.

Ghosh joined Vodafone Essar in August 1998, when it was a single license area operator with 140,000 subscribers. Now it has all-India operations with 63 million subscribers.

Vodafone Essar is now present in 21 out of 22 circles in the country. Today, the company is India's third-largest telecom operator after Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications and has over 63 million subscribers.