Arun Sarin

Arun Sarin joined Accenture’s board of directors in October 2015. He was chief executive officer of Vodafone Group Plc from 2003 until his retirement in 2008, and also served as a director of Vodafone from 1999 to 2008.

Arun, who was born in India, began his career in the telecommunications industry in 1984, when he joined Pacific Telesis Group. He progressed through various management positions there and at AirTouch Communications—which Pacific Telesis spun off in 1994—and was named president and chief operating officer of AirTouch in 1997. After AirTouch merged with Vodafone in 1999, Arun was appointed chief executive officer of Vodafone’s U.S./Asia-Pacific region. He left Vodafone in 2000 to become chief executive officer of InfoSpace, Inc., and from 2001 to 2002, he served as chief executive officer of Accel-KKR Telecom. He rejoined Vodafone in 2003 as its group chief executive officer. He grew the company globally from 100 million subscribers to 300 million subscribers and expanded its services to include data and broadband. Following his retirement in 2008, he served as a senior advisor to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for five years.

Arun is chairman of the board of directors of Cerence Inc. and a director of The Charles Schwab Corporation and Cisco Systems. He previously served as a director of Blackhawk Network Holdings, The Gap and Safeway, and as a non-executive director of the Court of the Bank of England. In 2010, he was named an Honorary Knight of the British Empire for services to the communications industry.

Arun holds MBA and Master of Science (Engineering) degrees from University of California-Berkeley, and earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India.