Movers And Shakers Of The Week [29 May-June 3]

These are the  startup hires of the Indian startup ecosystem this week.

Snapdeal’s HR Head Saurabh Nigam has resigned from his role, after a three year stint with the company. He will be replaced by Pravin Kutty, Associate Vice President – HR and Administration, post the transition.

Also, Gautam Gupta, Uber Technologies’ Head of Finance has resigned to join another startup in San Francisco. He joined Uber in April 2013. Prior to joining Uber, he worked as Vice President – Goldman Sachs. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Milind Shah Joins Unitus Seed Fund

Unitus Seed Fund has appointed Milind Shah as its healthcare venture partner. He was earlier working as the India managing director of global healthcare company Medtronic.

The appointment comes in the wake of Unitus Seed Fund’s upcoming INR 100 Cr healthcare- focussed fund.

Milind is one of the startup hires that will bring in deep understanding of healthcare, relationships with medical technology companies and hospital chains as well as expertise in drafting strategic plans, executing business model innovations and mergers and acquisitions.

He will work closely with Unitus’ investee companies to prepare them for growth and follow on funding by providing access to global healthcare practitioners, teachings and operating medical facilities.

Milind holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi and an MBA from IIM Calcutta.

Flipkart Senior Leadership Team Shuffles

Flipkart COO (Chief Operating Officer) Nitin Seth has stepped down from his position, citing personal reasons. Seth was responsible for the logistics unit, Ekart and corporate functions like Strategy and Human Resources.

He worked as the MD of Fidelity International, before joining Flipkart in February 2016, as Chief People Officer. He was promoted to the position of Chief Administrative Officer in mid-2016, which left him in Charge of Strategy and Corporate Functions. He was given the title of COO in January 2017 when Kalyan Krishnamurthy was appointed as the CEO, and co-founder Binny Bansal became the Group CEO of the Indian startup.

Nitin holds a B.Tech in Textile Technology and an MBA in Finance & Operations from IIM Lucknow.

Next up in startup hires of Indian startup companies Flipkart has appointed its former Business Development Head Abhijit Upadhye as CEO of Jeeves Consumer Services Pvt. Ltd. Jeeves is a Flipkart subsidiary, providing after-sales service for home appliances and electronics.

Abhijit joined Flipkart in April 2016 as Vice President – Business Development and was earlier responsible for driving growth at its logistics arm eKart. As per his Linkedin profile, he was appointed as Jeeves’ Chief Executive in January this year.

His early career stints include association with McDonald’s Japan, McDonald’s India, and Infosys. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and is an alumni of VJTI and NMIMS.

Also, Flipkart’s logistic arm Ekart’s VP- Neeraj Aggarwal quit to join Ola as its Head of Driver Engagement and Incentive Planning.

Ex-Snapdeal’s Saurabh Bansal Joins Lenskart

Saurabh Bansal has been appointed by Indian startup Lenskart Solutions Pvt. Ltd as senior Vice President and Head, Buying and Merchandising. Prior to joining Lenskart, he worked as the former Vice-President and Head of Category Management at Snapdeal.

He joined Snapdeal as Associate Vice President in 2014, and had early career stints with brands like Spencer’s Retail, Metro, and Jubilant (Domino’s Pizza). He went on to become the ecommerce marketplace Vice President and Head of Categories, and had also served briefly as head of SD Instant in one of India’s list of Indian startups.

Saurabh holds a BE in Mechanical from Birla Institute of Technology and an MBA in Marketing from S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research.

KOOVS Appoints Samantha Chilton As Head Of Design

Koovs has appointed Samantha Chilton as Head of Design. In her new role, she will be helping the company in working with the supplier base in India.

Chilton has over 25 years of experience in affordable fashion, working for leading brands such as Primark, Arcadia, New Look, River Island, Top Man, Warehouse and George,across womenswear and menswear on both the retail and supply side of the UK market.

She has also led the UK and Northern European womenswear design team at Primark from 2012 to 2016 and designed ranges targeted at Zara, Pull & Bear, Mango, Forever 21, River Island and BOOHOO.com, whilst working as a design consultant within supply.

Samantha also has extensive international experience in working with global manufacturers in India, Bangladesh, China and Europe.

iCubesWire Appoints Devinder Sharma As Chief Growth Officer

Amongst the list of Indian startup companies. iCubesWire has appointed Devinder Sharma as its Chief Growth Officer. In his new role as one of the startup hires, he will be responsible for 360-degree aspects of growth across the company’s offices including Gurugram and Mumbai.

He comes with more than 14 years of experience in digital marketing across Southeast Asia in both management and business development positions. He has worked at Opera Mediaworks as an Ad Sales Director where he was managing the mobile brand sales and revenue in the South Asia market.

Prior to that, he has worked at Vdopia Inc. as Country Head, Indonesia, where he was managing Digital Sales.  He has also worked with a list of Indian companies like Sify, Buzzintown, and Business Standard in the past, where he was responsible for the Ad Sales and Strategy.

Ex Cisco Director Pratik Bose Joins IAN Fund

An important stakeholder in the Indian startup ecosystem, the Indian Angel Network (IAN) has appointed ex-Cisco Director Pratik Bose as Managing Partner. Pratik comes with  over 20 years of experience and, most recently, was with Cisco Corporate Development where he oversaw Private Equity Investments, Mergers & Acquisitions and Inorganic Strategy in the Asia Pacific and Japan region, which included Australia, Japan, Korea, India, and Southeast Asia.

He has also been an entrepreneur in IoT (Eka Systems) and Space & Satellite Systems (Altigy Networks) areas and a space and satellite network and telecommunications engineer in Comsat Labs (acquired by Lockheed Martin).

He is an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business and MS from Johns Hopkins University.

These were the list of startup hires in the Indian startup ecosystem. Stay tuned for the next edition of Indian Startup Hires Of The Week.