Bharat Vagadia (Dr)

Dr Bharat Vagadia is a Global Tech and Digital Economy professional with over 25 years of experience. He joined Ooredoo Group in 2017 with oversight across the ten operations across MENA and South Asia. As the head of regulatory affairs at Ooredoo Group, he oversees the group regulatory function, developing strategy, ensuring compliance, driving advocacy, and stakeholder engagement. Previously he was a board director at Ooredoo Myanmar, one of the fastest growing operators in the region. Prior to joining the group, he was with Ooredoo Qatar.

He brings with him over twenty-five years’ experience in TMT policy, regulation and strategy and a wealth of experience as a management consultant, having advised over fifty clients in over twenty-five countries, including governments, regulatory authorities, multinationals, high growth start-ups, as well as investment funds. He has been instrumental in sector liberalization, creation of licensing frameworks and the broader development of regulatory environments that foster competition and long-term consumer welfare.

Dr Vagadia currently chairs the GSMA’s MENA Policy Group and was chair of the AsiaPac Policy Group and sits on the Global Chief Regulatory Officers Group.

He is the author of four books: (i) Digital Disruption, (ii) Enterprise Governance, (iii) Strategic Outsourcing, and (vi) Outsourcing Law.

He holds a PhD, MBA, LLM, B-Eng, DipM, CIPP/E and AIGP.

He is a mentor and executive coach to the next generation of leaders and is currently a HEC Paris MBA Capstone Adviser.