Movers And Shakers Of The Week [26 September – 1 October]

Let’s take a look at the important movers and shakers of the week.

Ex-FreeCharge Exec Joins ZoomCar

Rajesh Bysani  has been appointed as the Chief Product Officer for self-drive car rental startup ZoomCar. Bysani was earlier associated with FreeCharge and led product and growth at digital payments firm. He also worked as AVP for products at bus ticketing platform redBus, where he was leading the B2C product and helped launch the mobile strategy.

In his new role, he is expected to lead ZoomCar’s product innovation, expansion into new markets and delivery of exceptional customer value.

He will work out of ZoomCar’s headquarters in Bengaluru.

Mahindra Ropes In Founder Of MeraKisan Pvt Ltd

Prashanth Patil, founder of MeraKisan, has been roped in by Mahindra Univeg Pvt. Ltd, a joint venture between Mahindra Agri Solutions Ltd and Belgium-based Univeg (Greenyard Foods), to spearhead its online grocery services.

Prashanth who has brought his online property under the newly incorporated firm has picked up 66.83% stake in MeraKisan Pvt. Ltd, through fresh issue of shares. He has also been made CEO-designate of the firm, Mahindra & Mahindra.

He is an IT engineer by profession.

Myntra Appoints Dipanjan Basu As Chief Finance Officer

Flipkart-owned Myntra has appointed Dipanjan Basu as the CFO. He moves into his new role at Myntra from Wipro, where he was the Chief Finance and Operating Officer for Wipro’s Digital and Consulting Business.

Dipanjan brings with him over 15 years of experience in the space of financial management and operations control, building, and setting up new businesses, M&As, and investments in startups. He started his career at Wipro as a young professional and built his way up to being one of the youngest Vice Presidents at Wipro. Dipanjan also had a two-year stint with Quatrro Risk Management Services where he was the CFO of the company.

In his new role at Myntra, Dipanjan will be overlooking the finance function. He is expected to streamline and further enhance important processes as the ecommerce major is witnessing strong growth.

Dipanjan is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and was ranked seventh in India in the CA final exams. He is slated to join the team at Myntra on October 27, 2016.

eBay’s Abhimanyu Lal Takes Charge As KartRocket’s Chief Business Officer

End-to-end ecommerce solution provider for SME’s, KartRocket has announced the appointment of its Chief Business Officer, Abhimanyu Lal. Prior to this move, Abhimanyu was at eBay India for eight years and most recently headed the Category Management function. He also headed the Marketing and Strategy functions for eBay India at different points. Abhimanyu was also the Business Head for eBay Philippines and eBay Malaysia.

Abhimanyu’s experience spans areas such as business growth, category leadership, marketing, and strategy.

Post eBay, Abhimanyu co-founded Twyst, a startup that helped small retailers retain and engage their customers more effectively.

Former Head of IIM Bangalore’s Entrepreneurship cell joins BHIVE Workspace

BHIVE Workspace has hired A. Suryanarayanan, former IIM Bangalore’s Head of Entrepreneurship cell to lead its incubator consulting services. In his new role at BHIVE, Suryanarayanan will head the Incubator Consulting Services as well as help design the Entrepreneur-in-Residence programme, both of which will help fuel the startup ecosystem.

Suryanarayanana began his career working for companies such as Union Carbide and Nicholas Laboratories. He then began his entrepreneurial journey with pharmaceutical company Recon in 1988, successfully taking it public through an IPO. He also founded Medybiz and LIFEKEN, which were acquired by Reliance ADAG and Religare respectively.

Additionally, he served as the COO at N S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at IIM Bangalore. Suryanarayanana is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and has a Masters in Management from McGill University, Canada.

RoofandFloor Appoints Industry Veterans To Drive Next Level Of Growth

Online marketplace for new homes in India, RoofandFloor has announced multiple appointments to its leadership team, as it looks to disrupt the online real estate market in India.

Gowri Shankar Nagarajan has been elevated to the role of  CEO. He has been the COO of RoofandFloor since July 2015. Prior to joining the company, he was part of the management team at InMobi, and the core leadership team for High Tech and Telecom practice at McKinsey.

The company has also strengthened its revenue function with the appointment of T. Shrikanth as Head of Sales. He is a real estate industry veteran having been part of Indiaproperty and Sulekha.com, prior to founding a startup in the commercial rental space, officejuvo.com. Shrikanth has been associated with the Internet industry in India since its early days, being part of Sify.

Shrikanth joins Bikash Chowdhury, who is the Chief Marketing Officer at RoofandFloor, and a recent leadership hire. Bikash comes from InMobi where he led the Global Digital Marketing and Research functions, among a number of other marketing functions.

Another senior addition to the leadership team is Nishant Kashyap, who heads Operations at RoofandFloor, overseeing delivery for its business partners. Nishant is an IIM alumnus and has previously held management positions at American Express and the consulting firm, Strategic Decision Group.

RoofandFloor has also strengthened its engineering and technology functions with the appointment of Niren Pai, as Head of Engineering and Iman Kalyan Pande, as Head of Products. Niren has spent several years building world-class products at global companies such as Cisco, while Iman held product management positions at CommonFloor, now part of Quikr, and Hubzu – a global leader in online home auctions.

People Operations at RoofandFloor is led by Sudha Prabhu, another veteran in the technology industry. She joins the company from InMobi, where she was Director of People Operations.

Additional recent hires include Gurpreet Singh, as General Manager, advisory services. He joins RoofandFloor from India Homes, where he was driving brokerage services for homes in South India.