Movers And Shakers Of The Week [15-20 Jan 2018]

We bring to you the important movers and shakers of the week.

True North Founding Partner Vikram Nirula Quits

Vikram Nirula, a founding partner at private equity firm True North has resigned from his post. Confirming the development to Livemint, he stated, “ I can confirm that I have put in my papers and will not be part o the new fund of True North.”

Nirula joined True North in March 2000 and was responsible for investments in consumer companies, retail firms, financial services and industrials.

Vikram holds a BE in Computer Science from Birla Institute Of Technology and is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore.

Whatfix Ropes In MakeMyTrip Investor Vispi Daver

Vispi Daver, an investor in MakeMyTrip and CarWale, has joined Whatfix as Senior Vice-President for sales and business development in the US.

Daver was among the early investors in Whatfix and has served on its board since 2015. He has worked with companies in the US and India and has helped them build teams, acquire customers and partners, and navigate through to a public market listing.

He will be based out of the company’s office in the San Francisco Bay Area. In his new role, he will be contributing towards the company’s expansion in the North American market. Daver will also lead the company’s go-to-market presence in the US. He will have an oversight of the strategic direction and operations of the company.

Bhavin Turakhia Appoints CEO For Radix

Radix, the domain registry founded by serial entrepreneurs Bhavin and Divyank Turakhia, has appointed Sandeep Ramchandani as its new global CEO. Bhavin will continue as Radix’s Executive Chairman.In his new role, Sandeep will help scale Radix’ business rapidly.

Radix was launched in 2012 with an eventual investment of $25.07 Mn (INR 160 Cr).  Its annual revenue for the calendar year 2017 was over $12.5 Mn (INR 80 Cr) and is expected to cross $15.6 Mn (INR 100 Cr) in 2018. Radix had bid to operate 31 top level domain extensions and won the rights to nine of those, including ONLINE, .SITE, .TECH, .STORE, .PRESS and.FUN.

Sandeep Ramchandani has been with Radix since its inception as the VP and Business Head. Prior to Radix, he was with LogicBoxes, an enterprise consulting business, which was one of the businesses acquired by Endurance International Group in 2014.

Paytm Payments Bank Appoints Nitin Chauhan As CISO

Paytm Payments Bank has appointed Nitin Chauhan as its Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).

In his new role, Nitin will be in charge of Information Security, setting up and enhancing the firm’s enterprise security strategies, infrastructure, and network design. This also includes securing all lines of network & interoperability for PPB customers, and services across partner banks and financial services.

He will also ensure regulatory compliance with an emphasis on building a security framework for all Paytm Payments Bank customers.

Nitin comes with around two decades of experience across Information and Cyber Security. Prior to joining Paytm Payments Bank, he served as the CISO at RBL Bank for over six years and also worked with Kotak Bank and other financial institutions.

He graduated in Commerce from Delhi University and holds an MBA degree in IT and International Business. He is a CISA professional and is a certified Lead Auditor from BSI for BS 25999 and Lead Implementer for ISO27001 security standards.

InMobi Hires Marc Steifman As Chief Financial Officer

InMobi has appointed Marc Steifman as the company’s Chief Financial Officer.

Marc Steifman has over two decades of experience working in investment banking focused on growth companies. In the past, he has advised more than 100 clients in transactions totaling over $25 Bn.

In his last stint, he served as Managing Director and Co-Head of Piper Jaffray’s Technology Investment Banking Group. His transaction experience includes advising on M&A, IPOs and raising private capital across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Marc joins the executive leadership team and will report to InMobi’s Founder and CEO, Naveen Tewari. He will be based out of the San Francisco office.

Marc graduated with an AB in Economics from Dartmouth College and received an MBA in Accounting and Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

MobiKwik Hires RBL’s Senior VP As CRO

Puneet Agarwal, ex-Senior Vice President at RBL has joined MobiKwik from January 2018. He will be setting-up and managing the risk management framework for the financial services business at MobiKwik.

This would involve creating lending policies, risk models, and portfolio management strategies to help acquire the right set of customers, and build a profitable and sustainable business. The company is in the process of creating lending products in partnership with leading banking institutions and NBFCs.

Puneet has over 16 years of experience with reputed Multinational and Indian Banking & Financial Service organisations. Till recently, he was heading the Risk Division for credit cards at RBL India. He has been actively involved in the development, implementation, and maintenance of multiple Score Cards for Credit Cards and Asset products.

Puneet has also led multiple Digital lending initiatives using conventional & alternate data-based programs. He will be implementing his expertise in secured and unsecured loans, loan origination and collection management systems to establish the lending vertical at MobiKwik.

Qlik Appoints Arun Balasubramanian As New Country Manager For India

Qlik has appointed Arun Balasubramanian as its Country Manager for India. In his role at Qlik, Arun will be responsible for leading and expanding Qlik’s operations in India.

In his new role, he will work towards adding greater depth to and drive growth for Qlik’s countrywide operations. Arun will report to Julian Quinn, Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific.

With over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, Arun has earlier held senior executive positions at HP, CA Technologies, and Salesforce. Prior to joining Qlik, Arun was spearheading Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise business in India and was a responsible broad set of products including Azure, SQL, and IOT.

He also worked closely with go-to-market and alliances teams to increase the brand’s footprint across enterprise, commercial and public sector clients. Before joining Microsoft, Arun played a vital role in delivering strong growth for Salesforce during his time as its Area Vice President – India and SAARC.

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

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