New CxO Appointments in June 2021 [Updated List]

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

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

1. Prof (Dr) Rajesh Chakrabarti joins MDI Gurgaon as the new Director

MDI Gurgaon, one of the leading B-Schools in India has appointed Prof (Dr) Rajesh Chakrabarti as the new Director. He replaces Prof (Dr) Atmanand, Director (Additional Charge) MDI Gurgaon and Director, MDI Murshidabad.

Prof Chakrabarti has held key faculty and leadership positions in various academic institutions across the globe. He has also taught at the University of Alberta, Canada, Georgia Tech, USA, and the Indian School of Business (ISB). Further, he has also held visiting positions at several institutions. Some prominent names include IIM Calcutta, ISI Delhi, ICN Nancy, France, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

2. FinTech startup Aye Finance appoints Mayank Thatte as CFO

Aye Finance has announced the hiring of Mayank Thatte as its Chief Financial Officer. Mayank’s last assignment was as CFO Electronica Finance Ltd. Further, Mayank has over 19 years of experience in leading organizations in the BFSI space; Tata Motors Finance, Tata Capital, ICICI Bank to name a few. He brings to Aye a comprehensive perspective on all the corporate finance, treasury, MIS and accounting functions. He will also work to strengthen the financial and regulatory reporting and driving operational and digital transformation.

3. ZEE Entertainment appoints Nitin Mittal as President – Technology & Data

Zee Entertainment, a leading media and entertainment powerhouse, has announced the appointment of Nitin Mittal as President – Technology & Data. Nitin will lead the technology and data teams and also its strategic initiatives in Tech, Data, AI-ML. Further, he will head all digital functions across the company to support the ZEE 4.0 transformation. Additionally, Nitin will also lead the Engineering team and work closely with Amit Goenka, President – Digital Businesses & Platforms to enhance the customer experience across ZEE5. The role also aims to support the growth plans of the OTT Platform in India and across the world.

4. Scaler Academy announces key leadership appointments

Upskilling focussed EdTech startup Scaler Academy has announced five key leadership appointments towards further strengthening its Strategic, Marketing and Creative business units to accelerate business growth. Rahul Karthikeyan joins as the Chief Marketing Officer, Arnav Gupta as Product and Strategy Lead, Anu Nair as Creative Head. Further, Ranjeet Kumar and Manmeet Singh Akali also join the company as co-heads of Brand and Content.

Rahul, a seasoned marketing professional has over 15+ years of experience working for several illustrious brands and agencies. Most recently, Rahul was the Head of Marketing at Upgrad. There, he led several critical brand-building initiatives across varied platforms. Arnav, a serial entrepreneur, co-founded Coding Blocks in 2016, a learning platform for software developers and Greplr, a hyperlocal aggregator app that Micromax acquired. He has also worked with Zomato as their Engineering Head for Mobile Apps.

Anu Nair who joins the company as the Creative Head has over a decade of experience in different facets of advertising and Media Management. He has worked for brands across B2B and B2C sectors and thus, brings rich creative expertise. In his new role at Scaler, Anu will streamline, strategise, develop, and execute creative communications for the brand. He will also work towards paid media.

Ranjeet comes in with a decade of rich and extensive experience in marketing and advertising. He has worked with major advertising networks in the country - WPP, IPG, Publicis & Dentsu. Manmeet was an ed-tech entrepreneur who founded a video mentoring platform, Klarity, in 2017 that later got acquired by Eduvanz. A software engineer by education, Manmeet comes with the right mix of eclectic experience across the technology, education and business sectors to help Scaler in their next phase of growth.

5. Adobe appoints David Wadhwani as EVP and CBO, Digital Media Business

Adobe announced the appointment of David Wadhwani as executive vice president and chief business officer, Digital Media. In this role, Wadhwani will be responsible for the success of the company’s global digital media business across Creative Cloud and Document Cloud, including all product marketing, strategic partnerships, customer support and go-to-market across geographies, working closely with the Digital Media Product organizations. Further, he will report directly to Adobe president and CEO Shantanu Narayen.

Wadhwani returns to Adobe from Greylock Partners where he is a Venture Partner. Before joining Greylock, he was president and CEO of AppDynamics. There, he led the company as it transformed into a SaaS-first business and grew annual recurring revenue approximately 10 times in four years. Cisco acquired AppDynamics in 2017 for nearly $4 billion.

Wadhwani joined Adobe in 2005 through the company’s acquisition of Macromedia, Inc. He was also the senior vice president and general manager of Adobe’s Digital Media business from 2010 to 2015. He played an instrumental role in advancing the company’s category leadership, expanding into new markets and contributing to its successful transformation to a cloud-based subscription business.

6. Blaize Names Mark Glasgow VP of Worldwide Sales

Blaize is an AI computing innovator revolutionizing edge and automotive computing solutions. The company announced the appointment of Mark Glasgow as VP of Worldwide Sales. Glasgow joins Blaize to lead and grow the sales organization seizing the substantial opportunity for pioneering products in the multi-billion-dollar market for AI in industrial edge, enterprise, and automotive/mobility segments.

In his 30-year career, Glasgow has a track record of successfully growing revenue for innovative technology-based solutions in early-stage, high-growth companies, such as SolidFire Inc. (later acquired by NetApp), and in Fortune 50 multinationals. Prior roles included VP of Worldwide Enterprise Sales for Micron Semiconductor, where he successfully built a new sales division, and Executive Director for the North America Advanced Systems Group at Dell where he re-architected the sales approach to drive significant sales efficiency improvements and revenue growth.

7. Commvault appoints Anshuman Rai as new AVP India and South Asia

Software management leader Commvault has appointed Anshuman Rai as the new AVP - India and South Asia at Commvault APJ. Rai joins Commvault with an impressive record from UiPath where he was the Regional VP of sales for India Domestic business, managing India and South Asia. Further, he brings to the table a deep knowledge of India SaaS and data management landscape including the new age tech-world of AI and ML and a proven sales, pre-sales and management track record at Dell EMC Solutions, HP, and Wipro.

Before joining Commvault, he held diverse senior leadership roles with leading IT and SaaS organizations including a recent IPO startup.

8. Ola announces appointments of two CFOs- G R Arun Kumar and Swayam Saurabh

Ola has appointed GR Arun Kumar as Group CFO and Swayam Saurabh as the CFO for Mobility, Financial Services, and Foods businesses. Kumar has over two decades of experience in finance and strategy. He has worked across varied consumer and industrial sectors, including Vedanta Resources, GE, and Hindustan Unilever.

Saurabh also has more than two decades of experience in a cross-section of roles. This includes internal audit, risk management, business, and operational process improvements, and financial reporting. He has worked with companies including Hindustan Zinc, Philips, Asian Paints, and Larsen & Toubro. He joins the Ola leadership team as CFO of the high-growth mobility business, as well as the fast-growing financial services and foods businesses. His focus will be to build strong growth with a robust bottom line. Further, Saurabh will look at the finances of Ola’s consumer internet businesses.

9. Morphisec has appointed Ajit Pillai as Regional Director for APAC.

Morphisec, a cloud-delivered endpoint and server security solution, today announced it has appointed Ajit Pillai as Regional Director for APAC. Before joining Morphisec, he served as Vice President Sales, India/SAARC, for Silicon Valley headquartered Seclore Technologies. Within that position, he quickly doubled revenue growth for its digital rights and data protection solution. Pillai also previously held senior sales roles in the SAARC region with McAfee, Trend Micro, and Checkpoint.

In this role, Pillai will oversee strategic direction in the region and ensure Morphisec can meet increasing local demand for its suite of solutions for endpoints, servers, and cloud workloads, which uses patented zero trust runtime security powered by moving target defence technology to block threats.

10. XpressBees appoints Anil Kabra as Vice President Enterprise Sales

End-to-end logistics provider, XpressBees has announced the appointment of Anil Kabra as Vice President Enterprise Sales. In this position, Anil will develop, execute and drive enterprise sales strategies. He will also focus on scaling XpressBees growth in new and existing markets.

Anil joins XpressBees with over two decades of relevant experience. His primary competencies lie in strategizing product development, business development, and market penetration. He has worked previously worked with the DP DHL group where he was instrumental in setting up the end-to-end solution, product development, some of which included in-house cold rooms setup along with validated packaging, vendor set-up for transportation. He also supervised the white-gloved service, and temperature control transport network system. Anil has completed MBA in Marketing from Osmania University.

11. IMGC Appoints Sumit Chadha as Chief Information Officer

India Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (IMGC) has announced the appointment of Sumit Chadha as Chief Information Officer. In his new role at IMGC, Sumit will lead implementing technology strategy, enhancing digital capabilities and strengthening the company's competitive capability with new-age technology solutions. Sumit brings 20 years of rich experience in Digitization of processes, IT Strategy, Enterprise architecture, Systems implementation, IT Governance, Applications risk and control, project management, and infrastructure setup.

Before joining IMGC, he was associated with PNB Housing Finance as Head of IT. He has worked with organizations such as Nucleus Software Exports & ICICI Bank. A qualified Chartered Accountant, he also holds a Certification in Contemporary Business Analytics practices from IIM Kolkatta.

12. Cyware has appointed Rajan Chheda as Director of Customer Success

Virtual Cyber Fusion platform provider Cyware has announced the appointment of Rajan Chheda as Director of Customer Success. In his new role, Rajan will oversee strategic customer success & relationships in APAC and META. He will also anchor the future growth opportunities for Cyware's next phase of growth. Rajan will closely work with sales and delivery teams and drive customer satisfaction programs to enable excellent experiences for its customers.

Rajan brings over 20+ years of experience in the information security and cybersecurity domain, having advised some of the most renowned organizations. In his previous role, he led the cybersecurity domain at HDFC Bank Ltd for almost 11 years, where he was primarily responsible for managing and leading the Security Operations Center (SOC), Incident Response, Threat Hunting, Threat Intelligence, Red Team & Vulnerability & Application Security Management practices. He has also worked at KPMG on information/cybersecurity and risk management consulting projects for various Indian, APAC, and European customers. Rajan has also worked with WIPRO and Microland in the past.

13. Candere by Kalyan Jewellers has promoted Punith Iyer as COO

Punith Iyer, who formerly held the position of Company GM of Candere by Kalyan Jewellers, has been promoted to the post of Chief Operating Officer. With over 15 years of experience under his belt, Punith has extensively worked with large enterprises such as Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Essar, and GE to name a few. In 2019, he joined Candere as the Company GM where he was responsible for Finance, Operations, Alliances, Marketplace, and Customer Delight.

His new role as COO will see him shouldering the responsibility for the company's future strategic goals, performance, and growth.

14. Ex-American Express executive Prasad Sonavane joins Innoviti as Chief Revenue Officer

Smart payment solutions Innoviti has announced the appointment of Prasad Sonavane as Chief Revenue Officer – Partner Ecosystem Development. An alumnus of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Sonavane comes with 25 years of experience as an accomplished Sales, Marketing, Partnerships & Alliances business leader in a variety of businesses including payment networks, information sales, FMCG.

In his last assignment, he was heading the Risk Management Solutions & Data Monetization verticals at Dun & Bradstreet. Before that, Sonavane was associated with American Express where he held various leadership roles in merchant acquiring, strategic alliances, consumer card issuing, and corporate card lending businesses. He has also worked with other leading brands like Asian Paints, Titan & Lintas. Sonavane will head Innoviti’s Partner Ecosystem wherein he will drive the company’s growth and profitability by forging partnerships and alliances to help our enterprise and retail businesses scale up and strengthen our market position while creating value for our bank and brand partners.

15. AXA XL Insurance appoints Andrew Diesel as Casualty Risk Consultant

AXA XL Insurance has announced the appointment of Andrew Diesel as Casualty Risk Consultant – Fleet in the Americas. Based in Dallas, TX, Andrew will provide technical support to AXA XL’s underwriters and clients primarily in the U.S. and Canada. Andrew will be responsible for executing value-added engagements with clients, including in partnership with our growing ecosystem tech partners, as well as working with our underwriters to better support these clients.

Andrew has nearly 10 years of experience in fleet management and consulting. He previously served as a Senior Risk Control Consultant at Gallagher, where he had responsibility for implementing the National Risk Control Strategy and led the National Fleet and Transportation Working Group.

16. HCL appoints Accenture’s Siki Giunta to lead its cloud business

HCL Technologies has appointed Siki Giunta to lead the company’s cloud business. Siki joins HCL from Accenture. She has also led several other leadership positions in the industry, including the CEO of Managed Objects and Fortisphere.

Siki brings to HCL a rich experience in leading the development of global cloud strategies for multi-national clients as well as strategy and implementation of Cloud with a specific focus on building vertical applications with Cloud providers and partners, the company said in a statement. She has successfully scaled enterprise-grade Hybrid Cloud, Data Center & Hosting Businesses. She has also been a Software Products Business Leader.

17. Wipro appoints Anup Purohit as Chief Information Officer

Wipro has appointed Anup Purohit as Chief Information Officer. In his most recent role as the CIO of Yes Bank, Anup was in charge of spearheading Business Technology Transformation and Digital Innovation strategy with a relentless focus on bringing future technology into the bank’s current technology stack.

Anup brings with him over 25 years of experience across Banking and Financial Services, centred around Innovation in Digital Banking, Financial Management, Business Solutions & Service Delivery, Portfolio & Program Management, Risk & Controls and Information Security. Before Yes Bank, Anup was associated with financial institutions such as RBL, Barclays and JPMC in leadership roles, where he was responsible for building agile, robust, scalable and resilient technology platforms and processes, IT Infrastructure Solutions and Service Delivery.

18. Nikhil Agrawal joins Powerhouse91 as Co-founder and Chief of Corporate Development

Thrasio's Indian Alternative, Powerhouse91 has announced the appointment of Nikhil Agrawal as Chief Corp Dev Officer. In his new role, Nikhil will join the founding team of the company and lead acquisitions and fundraising. Nikhil brings more than 15 years of experience across M&A, Fund Raising, Investments, Capital Markets, Debt Financing, Joint Ventures, Partnerships, and Venture Capital.

Most recently, he was heading Corporate Development at OYO Hotels and Homes. Before this, he has worked with marquee organizations such as Bharti Airtel, Standard Chartered Bank, and Credit Suisse. Thus, Nikhil adds a wide array of expertise from across businesses to the team, the company said in a statement.

19. iValue Appoints Amarjeet Singh Manchanda as Vice President - Data Centre and Cloud Business

iValue InfoSolutions has announced the appointment of Amarjeet Singh Manchanda as Vice President - Data Centre and Cloud Business. In this new role, he will be responsible for the DC and cloud business division based out of iValue's Delhi office.

Amarjeet Singh comes with a rich professional experience of 24 years which he has built as a leader around his passion for business and technology. He comes with excellent experience in strong sales partnerships, presales roles across industries and markets as well as a service business. He also has diverse and rich experience from large Indian corporations and leading global multinationals. Before joining iValue, he was associated with Sysdig Inc as Regional Director - India. He has also worked with Redhat, Dell EMC, HCL and Sun Microsystems in leadership roles.

20. Asian Paints veteran Manish Choksi joins Bizongo Advisory Board

Bizongo has announced the formation of its advisory board. The B2B platform has onboarded Manish Choksi, Vice Chairman, Asian Paints. This announcement follows the company’s recent Series C funding of $51-million and comes given their expansion plans across South East Asia.

With Choksi’s counsel, Bizongo aims to ramp up its efforts across digital vendor management, supply chain automation, and supply chain financing. In parallel, the company is also focusing on creating a stronger portfolio of unbranded products that are not limited to packaging and extend into other segments, such as textiles and garments. Bizongo is also looking to transform itself into the most aspirational B2B technology company with a people-centric approach and a strong work culture.

21. Neeyamo Announces the appointments of Richard Jones and Ram Gupta to its Board

HR Tech firm Neeyamo has announced the appointments of Ram Gupta and Richard Jones as independent board members. Ram Gupta has over 25 years of technology strategy and execution expertise at fast-paced, innovative companies like Cast Iron Systems, PeopleSoft, WebMD, Silicon Graphics, IBM and TCS. Ram is one of the few technology executives with diverse technology experience from chip design to application software, including operating systems, networking, databases, middleware, multi-media, analytics, and cloud computing. Since 2007, Ram has served as a director on the boards of various public and private technology companies.

Further, with over 30 years of experience in technology and sourcing for US and European companies, Richard Jones offers CEOs/ Founders advisory services to help build IT-enabled service businesses. Areas of focus and expertise for Richard include robotics/automation, outsourcing, human capital management, finance & accounting, and CEO coaching, especially to European CEOs of American businesses. Richard was formerly a Commercial Director at IBM; a Partner with Accenture; and President (Europe) for Exult – a leading HRO organization that got acquired by Hewitt-Associates for US$ 794 Mn. He has also served (and is serving) on several boards and executive advisory groups.

22. HERE appoints Jason Jameson as Senior Vice President (SVP) and General Manager for the Asia Pacific

HERE Technologies has announced the appointment of Jason Jameson as Senior Vice President (SVP) and General Manager for the Asia Pacific. In his new role, Jameson will identify opportunities for customers, partners and developers, across industries. He will also leverage the power of location to solve business problems. Jameson is replacing Stanimira Koleva who left HERE to pursue a new opportunity.

Jason has extensive experience in managing sales and driving customer success of cloud-based solutions to diverse markets and organizations. He joins HERE from IBM where he held various executive leadership roles over the past decade and most recently led their cloud business in APAC and was responsible for overall business management, including profit, revenue and bookings for Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service. Jason holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Information Technology from the University of New South Wales.

23. ZingHR appoints Michael Good as its Global Chief Operating Officer

HRMS platform ZingHR has announced the appointment of Michael Good as its Global Chief Operating Officer. An innovative, outcome-driven, IT and Business professional, Michael has over 30 years of Global experience in consistently delivering business outcomes.

He is also a successful entrepreneur having run his own SaaS venture in the US, Europe and Australian markets is well versed with all facets of the business of ZingHR. He has gained broad business knowledge from a variety of roles including Management Consulting, Company Directorships, Operational Management, Project Management, Portfolio Management and General Business Consulting.

Michael will fulfil this role from his base in Brisbane, Australia.

24. slice appoints Siva Kumar Tangudu as Chief Technology Officer

Fintech startup slice has appointed Siva Kumar Tangudu as the company’s new Chief Technology Officer. An IIT-Mumbai alumni, Siva brings with him rich leadership expertise of over 15 years across senior & pivotal roles at Myntra, HackerRank, Microsoft, & Oracle to name a few.

He also comes with seasoned entrepreneurial background and co-founded a Hyderabad-based startup, Kawanan Labs. Siva has been an early-stage investor in slice, witnessing the company’s growth at a personal level. In this role, Siva will be responsible for strengthening slice’s technological arm and further expanding the company’s offerings.

25. XpressBees announces key leadership appointments

XpressBees an end-to-end logistics provider has announced the appointments of two industry veterans to its leadership team- Rajashekhar Khandrika and Swapnil Gupta. They join the organization as VP-Engineering.

Rajasekhar Khandrika joins XpressBees with a strong track of handling the complete life cycle of software product development. In his last stint with Flipkart, he has had the opportunity to work on the launch of programmes like Hyperlocal, Grocery, Furniture, Fruits & Vegetables to name a few. Rajasekhar Khandrika was also instrumental in reducing HW cost through massive re-architecture efforts. Before Flipkart, Rajasekhar spent two years with Amazon India and 13 plus years with Microsoft India R&D private limited. He completed B. Tech in CSE from IIT Kharagpur.

Swapnil Gupta brings over two decades of working experience, his core competencies are in the space of Engineering Excellence and Innovation. His previous stint was with Flipkart wherein he was responsible for re-architecture and scaling of systems, launching capabilities for new supply chains like grocery, hyperlocal and overseeing initiatives spanning across functions for driving supply chain efficiencies. Swapnil contributed to building and enabling several new capabilities in the supply chain and B2B integration domains. Academically, Swapnil has completed B. Tech from IIT, Kanpur.

26. Verizon Names Vijayaraman Subramanian as VP and MD, India

Verizon India has elevated Vijayaraman Subramanian as the Vice President and Managing Director. In his new role, Vijay will lead Verizon India. He will also play a key role in spearheading and evolving Verizon India as a strategic development centre, an emerging innovation hub and drive cutting edge capabilities to boost technologies like 5G for Verizon. Vijay takes over this role from Kalyani Sekar. Sekar has moved to the US to take on a global leadership role within the organisation.

Vijay has been with Verizon India since its inception in 2001. He has led multiple business teams and has played a significant role in driving comprehensive solutions for Verizon’s network and technology needs. Before, this new role appointment, he was the Interim head for Verizon India, leading the transformational journey of the organization. Vijay has also been integral to organization-wide initiatives like talent transformation, driving innovation through intrapreneurship and engaging with the external ecosystem including start-ups and academia.

27. Valyu.ai Ropes In Pramod Lamba as Chief Customer Experience Officer

Homegrown fintech startup, Valyu.ai has announced the appointment of Pramod Lamba as a Chief Customer Experience Officer. In this newly created role, Pramod will ensure that Valyu.ai's customer experience strategies are in sync with the broader business. These include marketing campaigns, new product categories and other business goals. Valyu.ai has created this role to provide a seamless customer experience and match pace with customer demands that are constantly rising and evolving.

Before this, Pramod has served ACT Fibernet. There he was responsible for defining and optimising the customer lifecycle, mapping the customer journey, developing listening points in that journey, and creating standardised interventions for each point in the journey. He also headed the HR function for some time; thus, driving employee experience for ACT Fibernet.

Pramod has vast experience in customer service leadership roles. Thus, he will be responsible for installing a company-wide customer experience framework at Valyu to integrate customers' and employees' perspectives in the company's strategic decision-making process. Pramod has also worked with marquee companies like Tata sky and Airtel.

28. Signzy Appoints Arghya Bhattacharya as Vice President of Partnerships and Alliances

No-code AI platform Signzy has appointed Arghya Bhattacharya as its Vice President of Partnerships and Alliances. He will be responsible for building strategic partnerships with Consulting firms, System Integrators, Technology Partners and other Fintechs. Thus, he will contribute to Signzy’s global expansion and growth going forward.

Arghya joins Signzy with over 17 years of experience as an accomplished partnerships and alliances leader. He has a proven track record in leading high-impact strategic initiatives across global markets. Before joining Signzy, Arghya was Director for Partner Sales at Icertis for India, the Middle East and Africa markets. Before Icertis, he was Director of Alliances at Happiest Minds Technologies.

29. Cashfree announces the appointment of Vaibhav Mehrotra as the Head of Marketing

Fintech Cashfree has appointed Vaibhav Mehrotra as the Head of Marketing. He will drive the company’s marketing strategy through its aggressive growth phase. Vaibhav will be responsible for building the brand while instilling industry best practices. These include brand marketing, product marketing, digital and performance marketing. He will also build a strong marketing team under his leadership.

Vaibhav has a career spanning over 13 years. He has worked in leadership positions at DLF Ltd, Max Group, Cognizant Interactive and Photon Interactive. In his most recent role as the Head of Brand and Marketing, Office Business at DLF. There, he led the marketing charter across six cities, launched various products and brand campaigns covering earned, owned, and paid media.

30. Brillio appoints Vishal Chhibbar as the Chief Financial Officer

Brillio has announced the strengthening and expansion of its leadership team with the appointment of Vishal Chhibbar as Chief Financial Officer. Vishal has more than thirty years of experience in finance and operations in leading private and public companies. He joins Brillio to lead finance, legal, admin, facilities and infrastructure, and M&A functions. He will drive Brillio’s strategy of delivering profitable growth and support the ‘We Care’ initiative by Brillio.

Before joining Brillio, Chhibbar served as the President and Chief Financial Officer at EPIQ Global service. He was also the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial officer at EXL for 10 years. He also served in various financial leadership roles across companies such as GE Capital, American Express Bank, and Xerox. Further, he has directed initiatives in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, United States and India.

31. Shajan George promoted as Senior Director, Sales - Private Networks at R&M India

R&M is a Swiss cabling systems developer and provider of high-quality fibre and copper solutions for network infrastructures around the world. The company has announced the elevation of Shajan George as Senior Director, Sales - Private Networks, effective from June 16, 2021. Shajan, who has been leading the technology division as Technical Director, will now move to the new role for R&M's India and SAARC region.

Shajan George is an industry veteran with 27 years of rich experience in Sales and Technical background. He has been heading the Technical Team in India as Technical Director since 2007. Shajan holds an MBA, PG Diplomas in Sales & Marketing Management, and Labor Laws and Labor Welfare. He held the post as Vice-Chair & Chair of FTTH APAC Council Education & Training Committee respectively in 2017 & 2018.

32. Bharti Airtel has appointed Amrita Padda as Chief People Officer

The telecom giant has today announced the appointment of Amrita Padda as Chief People Officer. Her position is with effect from 1 October 2021. She will report to Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, Bharti Airtel. In her new role, Amrita will be responsible for Airtel’s People strategy as the company transforms into a digital services provider of choice.

Amrita has work experience of over two decades with Hindustan Unilever, where she has handled the entire spectrum of Human Resources roles. Most recently, she was the Chief People Officer for Unilever Marketplace. The Marketplace was their newly set up global business unit to transform Distributive Trade. In the past, she has also led Human Resources for Unilever Philippines and their Global Procurement function. She has strong expertise in leading Human Resources transformation projects globally and has been a pioneer of new initiatives at Unilever.

Amrita takes over from Samit Deb, who has decided to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities outside of Airtel.

33. WhatsApp appoints Manesh Mahatme as Director, WhatsApp Payments, India

WhatsApp has appointed Manesh Mahatme to lead its payments business in India. The company, in a statement, said that Manesh will lead WhatsApp Payments in India in the position of the Director. Further, he will focus on enhancing the payments experience for users and scaling the service offering. The company added that Manesh will work towards contributing to WhatsApp’s vision of digital and financial inclusion in India.

Manesh Mahatme brings 17 years of experience in digital financial services and payments. His previous stints included Citibank, Airtel Money and Amazon. He joins WhatsApp from Amazon, where he spent close to seven years as Director and Board member of Amazon Pay India. At Amazon Pay India, Manesh led product, engineering, and growth teams. He was also instrumental in building and scaling the payment experience and platform for Amazon India’s marketplace business. Manesh graduated from BITS, Pilani (Electronics Engineering) and SP Jain, Mumbai (Management).

34. Zoom Video Communications hires Ricky Kapur as Head of APAC Biz

Zoom Video Communications has announced the appointment of Ricky Kapur. Ricky joins the company as the Head of APAC, effective June 21. Further, he will report directly to Zoom’s Head of International, Abe Smith. He will define and lead the company’s go-to-market strategy for key APAC markets exclusive of Japan. Kapur will also manage Zoom’s APAC business with supervision and alignment across all cross-functional roles.

Kapur comes to Zoom after 5.5 years at Microsoft, where he was most recently VP, Sales and Marketing Operations for APAC. At Microsoft, he managed all segments, from SMB and Majors through Enterprise. He also led a cross-functional team of sales, marketing, partner, and customer success professionals.