Movers And Shakers Of The Week [28 August-2 September]

SUMMARY

Important Startup Hires And Exits Of The Week

Dara Khosrowshahi is the new CEO of Uber. He joins Uber at a time when it is crucial for the $70 Bn company to return to stability after Travis Kalanick stepped down from the CEO job under investor pressure on June 20.

Dara Khosrowshahi, who has been President and CEO of Expedia since 2005, the world’s largest online travel agency by bookings, has experience in a digital industry which, like Uber, is concerned with logistics and movement of people. In 2015, he was the highest paid CEO in the country, mainly because of a nearly $91 Mn stock option grant. He is also on the board of the New York Times Company and sports merchandise company Fanatics Inc.

He holds a degree in Bachelor of Science, Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Brown University.

Cigniti Technologies Appoints Srinath Batni As Independent Director

Srinath Batni, global IT industry veteran, has joined the board of Cigniti Technologies Ltd. as an Independent Director. Prior to this, he was the Head of Delivery Excellence at Infosys and served on its board as a whole-time Director from May 2000 to July 31, 2014.

Srinath’s rich experience in delivery excellence will help Cigniti to excel in delivering projects efficiently, enhance client satisfaction, and bring in innovation. His advice will help the Cigniti Management drive further business growth. He is also the co-founder of Axilor Ventures. He received a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Mysore University and an M.E. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Coverfox Ropes Practo’s Premanshu Singh As CEO

Mumbai-based online insurance marketplace Coverfox has announced the appointment of Premanshu Singh as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company. Premanshu’s appointment is part of a planned leadership transition, as he succeeds Varun Dua, who has moved on to set-up a new online general insurance company.

Premanshu is a strategic thinker and an expert in scaling-up businesses. He will spearhead and lead strategic growth at Coverfox across critical business areas including strategic business planning and development, partner management and customer engagement, driving engagement through new touch points and overseeing transformational customer experiences while including newer products with attractive and customised price points. His primary focus will be on sustained business viability and charting a suitable course for the future.

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Premanshu brings to Coverfox more than a decade’s experience across sectors namely FMCG, technology, and startups. His last stint was at Practo where he was the Vice President Marketing. He co-founded a2zbaby.com in 2011, an ecommerce store wherein parents can find products of their choice for their kids. He is also an active Angel Investor, with Coverfox being one of his early investments. Premanshu has pursued an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad,

Lendingkart Group Hires Mukesh Singh As CTO

Lendingkart Group has announced the appointment of Mukesh Singh, a seasoned engineer with over 17 years of extensive technology experience, as its Chief Technology Officer. This comes at a time when the company is focussing on strengthening its technology stack by prioritising automation and data engineering to make loan disbursal as quick, convenient and accurate as possible.

At Lendingkart Group, Mukesh’s key responsibilities will include driving strategy and execution of the technology vertical. Most of his efforts will also be directed at building products and technologies that will make the company ready for massive adoption among India’s 50 Mn Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMEs).

Previously, Mukesh was the Senior Vice President of Engineering at SirionLabs. He was also the India R&D head for BitzerMobile which was later acquired by Oracle. The newly appointed CTO comes with vast technology leadership experience at other eminent organisations including Amazon, Texas Instruments and a number of successful startups such as Sipera Systems (Acquired by Avaya), etc.

Mukesh is currently the owner of four engineering patents and has had a couple of IEEE papers published to his credit.

Amitesh Jha To Lead Flipkart’s Logistics Arm eKart

Indian ecommerce poster boy Flipkart has appointed Amitesh Jha to head its logistics arm eKart. Till May, Flipkart COO Nitin Seth was heading eKart. After his abrupt departure, eKart and other corporate functions were reporting to CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy,

Amitesh joined Flipkart in November 2010 as Assistant Vice President – computers. Most recently, he was positioned as vice president – mobile, electronics, and computers, as per his LinkedIn profile. As per media reports, earlier too, Amitesh has worked with the eKart team.

Stay tuned for the next movers and shakers of the week.