Movers And Shakers Of The Week [12-17 November 2018]

We bring to you the latest edition of Movers and Shakers.

In one of the biggest shakedown for Indian startup ecosystem, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal resigned from his position as the chief executive and chairman for Flipkart Group after he was alleged of “serious personal misconduct”.

In an official statement, Walmart said that Bansal’s decision to step down from the post came in after an independent investigation was done on behalf of Flipkart and Walmart. Even though there was no evidence against him, the investigation found lapse of judgement on his part.

However, Bansal denied the accusations.

Going forward, Kalyan Krishnamurthy will continue to be the CEO of the Flipkart, which will now include Myntra and Jabong. The Flipkart subsidiaries will continue to operate as separate platforms within the Flipkart business.

Sameer Nigam will continue leading PhonePe as CEO. Both Kalyan and Sameer will report directly to the board.

Myntra and Jabong will now fully integrate all the remaining functions including technology, marketing, category, revenue, finance, and creative teams.  Myntra-Jabong CEO Ananth Narayanan will continue to lead the team. Media reports quoted sources suggesting potential layoffs in the Flipkart Group companies including Flipkart, Myntra and Jabong. Some media reports further reported that as the Flipkart founders move out from the company, at least 20 senior executives at Walmart-acquired Flipkart have reportedly floated their resumes to explore job opportunities.

Also, Walmart India’s corporate affairs head Rajneesh Kumar has joined Flipkart as its chief corporate affairs officer.

Here’s a look at other important movers and shakers of the week.

OYO Appoints CEO, India and South Asia

Hospitality chain OYO has announced the appointment of India, and South Asia (India and Nepal) CEO, Aditya Ghosh, India and South Asia, effective December 1, 2018.

This appointment comes as a part of the company’s efforts to continue to invest in and attract world-class leadership, in the wake of its focus to drive accelerated growth in its home markets – India and China.

With more than 21 years of experience, Ghosh was recently working with IndiGo as the President & Wholetime Director of IndiGo, where he was instrumental in turning airline into the largest and most profitable airline in India, and also into one of the fastest growing low-cost carriers in the world.

He was also a member of the apex Executive Committee of InterGlobe Enterprises at the Group Level and sat on the Board of the hotels and technology businesses as well as the flight simulator training facilities.

At OYO, he is entrusted with the responsibility to oversee and grow OYO Hotels business in South Asia, which will include, India, Nepal, and the other upcoming markets in the region. He will focus on continuing to drive growth while delivering high-quality customer experience and sustained yields for asset owners. He will be reporting to Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & Group CEO, OYO Hotels & Homes.

InCred Appoints Rahul Bhargava As CTO

Non-Banking financial company InCred appointed ex-Amazon techie Rahul Bhargava as Chief Technology Officer for the InCred group.

In his more than two decades of leadership experience, Bhargava has led product and engineering teams across Amazon, PayPal and American Express. His core areas of expertise have been around building digital products and businesses using machine learning, data science and analytics. Rahul was most recently at Amazon where he was responsible for building their global publisher network and managing their affiliate marketing platform across the world.

At InCred, Bhargava will help the company take its technology offering to the next level and create a truly unique and best-in-class engine that will drive productivity gains, risk management improvements and an enhanced consumer experience.

Chaitanya Mathur Joins As Global Head For Zomato Live

Zomato announced the appointment of Chaitanya Mathur as the Global Head for Zomato Live, the new event vertical for Zomato.

Mathur, in the past, has been instrumental in bringing down some of the most prolific international artists to India, has served as a talent manager to a high profile list of entertainment professionals and has been a founding member of revolutionary concepts and festivals in both the music and the food space.

With an Economics degree from the University of Warwick, Chaitanya has over 12 years of experience working in various positions ranging from a financial analyst to an event manager and restaurateur. Chaitanya’s passion for food and music booted from his first venture, Excited Monkey Entertainment (EME), where he mastered in event planning and management.

He then launched Bangin Beats, India’s most progressive, electronic music & entertainment online portal. Soon after he went on to co-found The Grub Fest, and led strategic alliances, marketing and digital activations for 3 years till June 2018. Chaitanya also serves as the Director at Bohca, a Euro-Spanish restaurant in New Delhi.

At Zomato Live,  Mathur will be strengthening its future by leading the company into new domains and territories.

Jaideep Dang Appointed MD, Hotels 

Real estate professional services firm JLL has appointed Jaideep Dang as Managing Director of its Hotels & Hospitality Business.

Jaideep Dang has wide-ranging and extensive experience across business consulting, transactions, management contracts, feasibilities & appraisals and market research. Prior to joining JLL, Jaideep was working with one of India’s marquee hotel brands, The Oberoi Group, as Senior Vice President – Strategic Development for the India sub-continent, Asia and Africa.

In his new role, Dang willl focus on strengthening the company’s transactional capabilities and leverage the larger JLL teams both in the country and other parts of the world for this. He will also help drive a One JLL approach to transactions and advisory mandates as well ensure trail opportunities for our other services

Freshworks Strengthens Technology Leadership

Chennai-based customer engagement company Freshworks has bolstered its top management with the appointments of Prasad Ramakrishnan as the chief information officer and Shivanath Somanathan as chief information security officer. These appointments are the latest of several top leadership hires by the SaaS leader.

Ramakrishnan will be responsible for scaling the technology infrastructure within Freshworks to adapt to the company’s rapid growth. He will drive the implementation and management of internal business systems, business intelligence, analytics and IT infrastructure. Previously, he served as CIO at HotChalk and Veeva.

Somanathan brings more than two decades of industry experience spanning information assurance, business security and cyber resilience sectors. Prior to his appointment, he worked CISO for India operations with Tata Communications.

In his new role, he will be responsible for information security, governance, risk and compliance related to product development and production Infrastructure.

Mohammed Aehthesham Joins Doodhwala As CTO

Subscription-based early morning delivery platform Doodhwala appointed Mohammed Aehthesham as its Chief Technology Officer.

Aehthesham comes with extensive technical, strategic and enterprise software knowledge. He previously served at SAP Ariba as the Chief Architect for the cloud platform. Prior to that, he was a Principal Engineer at Yahoo, playing a key role in merging technical leadership with the product.

At Doodhwala, Aehthesham will work on merging technology with Doodhwala’s overall business strategy. On the operational front, the company is improving its productivity by employing effective technology to the supply chain of fresh produce. On the customer front, the user will have an enriched intuitive shopping experience.

Doodhwala present in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune, has reached four million orders till date. Its one of the first subscription-based e-grocers built on a unique one-tap-add concept, wherein users can add multiple items – bread, eggs, fruits, etc to their upcoming delivery without the hassle of payment checkout.

In February Doodhwala received $2.2Mn funding from Omnivore, a venture capitalist firm, in its Pre Series A round.

Sattviko Appoints Ayush Arora As CFO

Packaged food company providing light snacks of Indian origin, Sattviko has appointed Ayush Arora as its first Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Arora holds extensive experience in Treasury, Business Finance, Funds Management and other aspects of company’s Financial Strategy. Prior to Sattviko, Arora was heading the liquidity solutions and investments department at Bharti Airtel Limited’s Group Treasury.

Arora is a seasoned professional with over seven years of experience and will be looking at Finance, Data Analytics and Business Strategy of Sattviko. In this role, he will oversee key functions across the company including fundraising, financial controls, operational efficiencies, treasury, risk management, and investor relations.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Movers and Shakers of the week!