Nigel Eastwood has about 17 years of experience in the telecom space, having set up and managed several large and growing businesses across global markets. As CEO of New Call Telecom, at present, Eastwood has his hands full. He is responsible for growing the company’s business as it forays into the Indian broadband and over-the-top market. The focus is on making New Call Telecom a leading fixed line voice and broadband telecom business in the Indian and UK telecom markets.

Talking about his focus on the Asian telecom market, and India in particular, Eastwood says, “I have been travelling and working in this region for the last decade. I am now looking to make acquisitions in the technology, media and telecom verticals in India.”

Recognising that the Indian telecom industry has come a long way since its liberalisation era, he notes that the industry has witnessed exponential growth, especially in the wireless segment in the past few years. Given the huge expected growth in wireless broadband adoption and the government’s Digital India initiative, operators are getting ready to build next-generation network infrastructure. The “app economy” and the new generation start-up ecosystem are expected to give a boost to the telecom industry.

Eastwood considers himself fortunate to be at the very leading edge of the adoption of new technologies. For him, spearheading New Call Telecom to become the sixth largest internet service provider in the UK and the incumbent challenger brand has been a real adrenaline-filled journey, very challenging but rewarding at the same time.

Eastwood has an MBA in strategic management from the Lancashire Business School, University of Central Lancashire. As a leader, he does not follow a particular classical management style; instead, he believes in taking his employees along as he goes about building the businesses internationally. For him, leadership is all about managing people effectively. “The best leader is someone who knows how to create a common company culture that every employee feels he belongs to, sets the goal and then inspires every employee to go that extra mile to make it happen. I don’t believe in short-cuts or a middle ground, without having a larger view of the situation.”

For him, work is all-encompassing and with offices all over the globe, travel is a major part of his life. Eastwood enjoys running and exploring new places. His wife is Indian and their three children are in university.