Movers And Shakers Of The Week [16 -21 Oct]

Norwest Venture’s Promod Haque Resigns From Yatra’s Board

Promod Haque, the senior managing partner at venture capital fund Norwest Venture Partners, has resigned from the board of directors of Nasdaq-listed Yatra Online Inc, which runs travel portal Yatra.com.

Haque has been a non-executive member of Yatra’s board since July 2006. The firm is now searching for a replacement for Haque.

Haque has been with Norwest since 1990, and has led investments in more than 70 companies—his investments have been worth more than $40 billion in aggregate exit value to date. Twenty-five of his portfolio companies have gone public and 37 have been acquired.

Purplle Appoints Pooja Acharya As Chief Beauty Officer

Online beauty marketplace Purplle has appointed Pooja Acharya as its Chief Beauty Officer. Pooja Acharya has decade-long experience in managing offline retail of globally renowned cosmetic brands. She will play a crucial role as Purplle plans to introduce its products in brick & mortar retail format, foraying in new beauty segments and introduce exclusive international brands in India.

At Purplle, Pooja’s extensive global experience in managing beauty brands in offline retail channels will guide the team through its next phase of growth.

Mumbai-born Pooja Acharya joins Purplle from Shiseido where she was Education and Training Manager for flagship stores. Her extensive beauty experience spans across international brands including Chanel, Cle de Peau, Dior, Nars, to name a few and flagship stores including Bloomingdale’s 59th street, Neiman Marcus, Short Hills and Macy’s 34th street in New York. She has a deep understanding of the global cosmetics market and evolving consumer behaviours.

Pooja has also worked closely with internationally renowned makeup artistes Dick Page, Setsuko and Miyako, Oswsldo Perez and Renato. She has created specialised beauty training modules based on world-renowned practices.

Snapdeal CFO Anup Vikal Quits

Snapdeal’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Anup Vikal has put in his papers. Vikal also served as the General Counsel of Jasper Infotech, the parent entity that runs the online marketplace.

The former Aircel CFO is expected to join Rosneft-owned Essar Oil as its new Chief Financial Officer.

Vikal was brought on board in October 2015, after the then CFO Aakash Moondhra resigned. Prior to that, he worked as the Group CFO, Head of IT & Strategy at InterGlobe Enterprises, a Gurugram-headquartered conglomerate that owns and operates IndiGo airlines. He also spent several years as the VP – Finance Head of telecom major, Bharati Airtel.

During his time at Snapdeal, Vikal spearheaded all activities pertaining to offloading assets and transferring ownership of assets for strategic financial reasons. He was also responsible for leading a number of exits from ventures Snapdeal had invested in over the course of the last three to four years.

Vikal also played an integral role in the proposed acquisition deal with Flipkart, which was ultimately abandoned towards the end of July this year.

Innoviti Ropes In Ex-RuPay Head, Rajesh Prasad

Rajesh Prasad joins Innoviti as Chief Business Officer – APAC Business for their Payments processing and SME Lending platform solutions.

The new appointment is a key step in Innoviti’s strategy to expand the market footprint of its innovative payments automation and SME Lending platform solutions beyond the domestic Indian market.

An experienced payment professional with deep understanding of banking and technology, Rajesh Prasad handled key portfolios at NPCI, including the development and implementation of RuPay Card Scheme, RuPay eCommerce solution and enablement of RuPay acceptance across Point of Sale (PoS) terminals across the country.

He has also been closely associated with international strategic alliances at NPCI including Discover/Diners, Japan Credit Bureau (JCB) and Union Pay International (UPI). Prior to this, Prasad worked with ICICI Bank for over a decade in multiple product management and technology roles including responsibility for Card and Switching systems and managing payment system applications.

Gyanendra Badgaiyan To Head Lobby Group Indiatech

Former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and economist Gyanendra Badgaiyan has been roped in as the CEO of Indiatech.org, the think-tank and lobby group set up by home-grown Internet companies like Flipkart and Ola, as per sources close to the development. After Gyanendra Badgaiyan joins in the next few weeks, the lobby group is expected to start staffing up.

Apart from this, other founding members are also rumoured to include online classifieds platform Quikr and Kavin Bharti Mittal’s Hike.

Badgaiyan was until recently heading the National Centre for Good Governance (NCCG), a government body which guides and helps implement good governance reforms through research, policy analysis, training, and advocacy. Before NCCG, Badgaiyan was chief economist at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a research fellow at the UN University.

Stay tuned for the next week movers and shakers!