T-Mobile, a US company, has announced on Monday the appointment of Srini Gopalan, a 55-year-old telecom executive of Indian origin, as its next chief executive officer (CEO), effective November 1. Gopalan, who has served as the company's chief operating officer since January and previously sat on its board from 2022 to February 2025, will succeed Mike Sievert. Gopalan's elevation arrives against a tense US immigration landscape, where President Donald Trump's administration has intensified scrutiny on Indian talent flows. Just days ago, the White House proposed a $100,000 annual fee for H-1B skilled worker visas aimed at prioritising higher wages and curbing what officials call exploitation of early-career foreigners.
Who is Srini Gopalan?
Born and raised in New Delhi, India, Gopalan embodies the global mobility that has defined many Indian professionals in US.tech and telecom leadership. He attended Delhi Public School and St. Stephen's College in the capital before earning his MBA from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), one of India's top business schools. His early career kicked off as a management trainee at Hindustan Unilever, the Indian arm of the consumer goods giant, where he honed operational skills in a fast-paced emerging market.
Gopalan's journey then spanned continents and telecom heavyweights, blending marketing, strategy, and operations across Asia, Europe, and the US. In 2009 and 2010, he served as chief marketing officer for T-Mobile's UK business, his first stint with the brand under parent company Deutsche Telekom. He later joined Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecom operator, navigating its explosive growth in mobile services. A key role at Vodafone followed, where he contributed to mergers and market expansions in Europe. From 2020, Gopalan led Telekom Deutschland GmbH as managing director, overseeing Deutsche Telekom's German operations amid digital transformations and 5G rollouts. En route, he gained financial services experience at Capital One and consulting chops at Accenture, rounding out a resume that bridges consumer tech, global telecom, and strategic advisory.
Now based in Bellevue, Washington, near T-Mobile's headquarters and a stone's throw from Microsoft in Redmond, Gopalan brings a personal flair to his professional ascent. A cricket enthusiast (sharing that passion with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella), blues music aficionado, and long-distance runner, he joins a roster of over a dozen Indian-born leaders at Fortune 500 firms, including Nadella at Microsoft, Sundar Pichai at Alphabet, and Arvind Krishna at IBM.
T-Mobile is all praises for Gopalan
T-Mobile's board cited Gopalan's deep industry expertise and internal track record as key factors in the decision. "Srini's skills, experience, and un-carrier mindset make him the ideal leader to shape T-Mobile's future," Sievert said in a statement, crediting Gopalan with driving the company's record growth this year and pioneering new customer initiatives.
Sievert, who has helmed T-Mobile since the 2020 merger with Sprint, will transition to vice chairman of the board. Gopalan, in turn, lauded Sievert's tenure for making T-Mobile "better, stronger, and faster," vowing to leverage its "America’s best network and digital/AI capabilities" to serve its 70,000 employees—dubbed "Team Magenta"—and customers alike.
