New CxO Appointments in July 2021

Here is an updated list of all important appointments in IT organizations in India for July 2021.

Here is an updated list of all important appointments in IT organizations in India for July 2021.

1. Zupee has appointed Gaurav Mehta as the new Chief Marketing Officer

Mobile gaming and knowledge platform, Zupee has announced the appointment of Gaurav Mehta as the Chief Marketing Officer. Gaurav is a post-graduate in Brand Management and Media Planning from MICA. He has also various marketing functions across major companies. He will lead the marketing activities for Zupee to ensure maximum penetration in all parts of India.

Gaurav brings to Zuppee over 19 years of experience. He has led the marketing verticals of major companies including Yahoo India, OLX and GirnarSoft. Gaurav is an analytics and research-driven marketer who has been in the mobile marketing space since 2008. At Zupee, he will work to establish strong marketing fundamentals and mentor a growing marketing team. He will also pursue a strong liaison with like-minded marketing partners across industries enabling faster and accelerated growth.

2. Octro Inc appoints Arup Das as its Chief Technology Officer

Mobile gaming company Octro Inc has announced the appointment of Arup Das as Chief Technology Officer. Arup, a seasoned business leader, brings more than 23 years of experience in areas such as ERP, Data Science/ Data Engineering, Cloud Computing, and other digital offerings. Before Octro, Arup was the CTO and CPO at Goals101 AI. He has also worked with Aristocrat Technologies as a Senior Director, R&D. Here he led an engineering and product team of 225+ people across the USA, Europe & India. Other than that, Arup has worked with several leading software product companies such as Cisco and NOctro Inc.

Arup is an MBA (Palmer Scholar) from the Wharton Business School (USA), MS in Computer Vision / Image Processing from the University of Calgary, Canada, and a BE in Computer Science (University Gold Medalist) from Jadavpur University, India. He was also a founding volunteer of Cricinfo. Here, he has covered international cricket matches as a volunteer.

3. Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has announced two appointments; Sanjay Gupta as its chairman from 2021-23 and Ajit Mohan as Vice Chairman of the association.

Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has elected Google India Vice President and Managing Director Sanjay Gupta as its chairman from 2021-23. It has also named Facebook India Vice President and Managing Director Ajit Mohan, as Vice Chairman of the association. Gupta and Mohan succeed Amazon Senior Vice President and India Country Manager Amit Agarwal and Yatra.com co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dhruv Shringi. Further, Razorpay CEO and cofounder, Harshil Mathur, has been named as the Treasurer. He succeeds Times Internet Vice-Chairman Satyan Gajwani.

4. ThyssenKrupp has promoted Rajesh Kamath to lead the company in India

Rajesh Kamath will take over the reins of the Indian EPC business in India from the CEO & Managing Director PD Samudra, who superannuates at the end of June 2021, after heading the company from 2014 as the first Indian, since its incorporation as an Indian company in 1977.  A graduate engineer from Bangalore University, Kamath led Air Liquide Engineering and Construction (E&C) in India and held many leadership positions with EPC firms before this assignment.

5. Mswipe appoints Ketan Patel as CEO

Fintech Mswipe has appointed former Cashe CEO Ketan Patel as its new chief executive. The company has also elevated founder and former CEO Manish Patel as the Managing Director. The leadership rejig at Mswipe is to pivot its business model from a merchant-focused payments firm to a "digital SME bank", the company states. Ketan Patel has close to 20 years of entrepreneurial and corporate experience in FinTech and the BFSI industry. He will lead the company through a strategic transformation, the statement further said.

6. upGrad Names Shreyas Shevade As Head of Creative, Content Marketing for India

Edtech startup upGrad has appointed award-winning creative professional, Shreyas Shevade as the Head of Creative and Content Marketing. In his new role, Shreyas will integrate upGrad’s brand messaging across traditional and new media. Shreyas brings with him over 11 years of experience in integrated advertising, digital marketing, PR, and relationship marketing.

He has previously worked with leading and multi-national agencies such as MRM//McCann, Edelman, Contract Advertising, Rediffusion Y&R, and Grey Worldwide. Shreyas has further crafted clutter-breaking campaigns for brands like Volkswagen, Durex, Surf Excel, Dove, Bajaj Allianz, and IndiaFirst Life Insurance through the course of his career. He has also won several national and international awards.

7. Twitter Names New Chief Customer Officer Amid Revenue Push

Twitter has named Sarah Personette as chief customer officer to oversee the social media platform's global ad sales, global content partnerships and revenue operations. Personette, who is VP, Global Client Solutions, will step into her new role on Aug. 1. She will replace Customers Lead Matt Derella, who will leave after nine years at Twitter.

Personette's appointment comes as Twitter aims to double annual revenue by 2023. The company also aims to expand its advertising capabilities to better compete with digital ad giants including Facebook. She will lead the company's relationships with top marketers and ad agencies. She will report directly to CEO Jack Dorsey and also oversee Twitter's emerging businesses.

8. Magma Fincorp names Sanjay Miranka Group CFO

Poonawalla group acquired Magma Fincorp Ltd appoints Sanjay Miranka as its Group CFO. Sanjay brings in over 26 years of rich experience across diverse industries like Financial Services, Edible Commodities, and Telecom. Before this, he was working with Aditya Birla Finance Ltd (ABFL) for 18 years in various capacities such as Head of Capital Market Lending Business and later as CFO. In his tenure as CFO, ABFL’s long term credit rating moved up from “AA+” to “AAA”. He has also been instrumental in diversifying the funding sources and achieving one of the lowest costs of funds in the NBFC sector. He has even been recognized as the Best CA CFO in the "Large Corporate BFSI Category” by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in 2020.

9. Geetika Mehta joins Hershey as Managing Director India

Geetika joins as The Hershey Company's Managing Director, India, effective 1st July 2021, she wrote in a LinkedIn post. In her most recent role, she was General Manager for the home and hygiene business at Hindustan Unilever Ltd. She comes with about two decades of experience and has worked with Uniliver for the longest time. Further, she has held leadership roles in the FMCG industry across categories including soups, noodles, spice mixes amongst others.

Geetika's key responsibility be to lead the Hershey India team into the next phase of growth, scale and evolution, she further added.

10. Cashfree appoints Arun Tikoo as SVP of Business and Strategy

Digital payments and banking technology company, Cashfree, has appointed Arun Tikoo as the Senior Vice President of Business and Strategy to fuel the next phase of its growth. Arun will drive strategic expansion across products, merchants, partnerships, and alliances. He will be responsible for strengthening the existing distribution network across industries and will oversee compliance, pricing, and operational setups of the new product launches. He will also develop and lead the execution of strategic plans to grow Cashfree’s footprint in international markets and partnerships with banks.

Arun brings over two decades of experience across senior leadership roles at top financial institutions like SBI, Yes Bank, ICICI and HDFC. In a decade-long stint at Yes Bank, he was instrumental in bringing innovation to the business line. He also leveraged the retail distribution network and grew digital products in retail, startups, and SME segments. He drove the first-ever API integration across the industry as well as strategic partnerships with accelerator programs such as T-hub, Springboard, and multiple state government setups. As part of the YES: Head-STARTUP program, he also onboarded many startups across fintech, agritech, edtech and ecommerce & aggregators, some of whom have become unicorns now.

11. Edtech platform Unacademy elevates Vivek Sinha as COO

Edtech platform Unacademy has elevated Vivek Sinha to the position of Chief Operating Officer of Unacademy platform. In his new role, Vivek will lead the business verticals of Test Preparation (India Business), K-12, and Careers. As COO, Vivek will also be responsible for central capability functions such as Inside Sales, Business Development, Business Operations, Content & Academics, and User Growth.

Vivek joined Unacademy in September 2020 as the Senior Vice President of the Test Preparation Business. In his 12 year career, Vivek has held leadership positions in companies across consumer Internet, fintech, and real estate. Major organisations include OYO, Mobikwik, Lodha Group and Reliance Energy. An alumnus of the Indian School of Business, Vivek also cofounded Buildzar, a construction-tech platform.

12. Urban Company names Neha Mathur as SVP, People Success

Tech-enabled home services marketplace, Urban Company, announced the appointment of Neha Mathur as SVP - HR. Neha will be responsible for strengthening Urban Company’s people-centric policies thereby building a diverse and inclusive work culture, along with talent management to enhance organizational performance and capabilities.

An alumnus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Neha's career journey of 18 years spans leading global organisations including Uber, General Electric, Accenture, Reckitt Benckiser, and Coca Cola. Further, she has worked in areas of human capital strategy, organisation design, talent management and analytics across multiple sectors and geographies. In her last stint as Head HR, India & South Asia for Uber's mobility business, she championed the cause of building an inclusive and diverse workforce, leadership development and driving innovative HR practices as the organisation transitioned to a virtual work environment in the pandemic.

13. GE Healthcare South Asia elevates Divya Shrivastava as Chief Human Resource Officer

General Electric Healthcare South Asia announced the elevation of Divya Srivastava to the role of CHRO at the company. Previously, she was Total Rewards Global Processes Leader and Sales Compensation Strategy Leader at GE. Srivastava brings in 14 years of experience working across various HR roles. She joined GE in 2011 as a member of the global HR Leadership Programme (HRLP). Since then, she has been associated with GE for almost 10 years in various capacities ranging from Senior Manager, Compensation & Benefits, and later on, Global Project Lead – Rewards till her promotion.

Before working with GE, Srivastava was with Hindustan Unilever for more than four years, most recently serving in the role of Talent & Capability Manager.

14. Michelin group appoints Gaganjot Singh as President, Michelin Africa, India & Middle East region

French tyre major Michelin Group announced the elevation of Gaganjot Singh as the President, Michelin Africa, India and Middle East Region. Gaganjot Singh will succeed Marc Pasquet, who has been called to other functions in the Michelin Group. Further, Singh will operate from Pune, India.

Gaganjot joined Michelin Group in India as Chief Financial Officer at the beginning. Across his 10-year tenure with them, he has held various leadership roles in finance, sales and other commercial functions across Asia, Africa and Europe. Since 2019, Gaganjot has also served as Global Business Model Leader – Large Fleets within the Long Distance Transportation Business Line. From 2016 to 2019, he was the Managing Director of South Africa Customs Union (SACU), Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique.

15. Fujifilm appoints Koji Wada as Managing Director for India

Taking over the baton from Haruto Iwata as he moves to his new role as Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region in Singapore, Wada will spearhead Fujifilm’s operations and business strategy in India. In his new role, Wada will be responsible for organizational growth and profitability with an integrated approach towards sales, marketing, and business policies.

Wada has been associated with Fujifilm since 2001. He has also contributed to the businesses across corporate offices in Japan, Myanmar, Thailand and India. He brings a vast experience of over 20 years and before taking over his role as Managing Director, he was responsible for leading the medical business of the company in India as a General Manager. This is Koji Wada’s second stint in India as he was Marketing Manager of PI, EI, RM for Fujifilm India in 2007.

16. AXA XL appoints Marine Ress as Chief Underwriting Officer, Casualty - Asia-Pacific & Europe

AXA XL Insurance today announced it has appointed Marine Ress as Chief Underwriting Officer, Casualty, APAC & Europe. Her appointment is effective as of October 1st and she will be based in Paris. In this role, ess will oversee the management of AXA XL’s casualty portfolio. She will also work closely with local underwriting teams. Further, she will be responsible for the underwriting strategy for General Liability, Motor and Environmental insurance in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

17. Virtual Forest appoints Sandeep Kejriwal as Co-Founder, COO & CFO

Virtual Forest, one of India’s first companies specialising in manufacturing energy-efficient consumer electronics and EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Services), has appointed the former EMC India CFO – Sandeep Kejriwal as Co-Founder, COO & CFO, to lead the overall strategy, operations, and financial management for the organization. As the company continues to grow, it aims to further strengthen its business performance and financial position with its demonstrated product and R&D expertise, as well as deep industry and go-to-market experience.

Sandeep brings over two decades of international finance/operations leadership experience spanning MNC manufacturing, technology start-ups, and global IT/ITES organizations. Alongside his CFO role at EMC’s (now DELL-EMC) Global R&D Centre in Bangalore, he had also served as Regional Chairperson for the NASSCOM GIC Forum. In the past, he has worked at senior leadership positions at Hewlett-Packard, EXL Service and Goodyear India. For the last few years, Sandeep has been an Entrepreneur where he worked for the social sector. He has also helped companies develop senior leadership talent through Outcome-Linked Training and Career & Life Coaching interventions. As an ICF-accredited Executive Coach, he has helped over a hundred corporate executives enhance their overall professional and life skills.