Sixty-two-year-old M.M. Murugappan, Vice Chairman, Murugappa Group, took charge as the Group’s Executive Chairman, succeeding A Vellayan, who retired at the age of 65. Murugappan has been serving as the Group’s Vice-Chairman since 2009, spearheading technology, innovation and environment, health and safety initiatives. In 2004, Murugappan took over as Chairman of CUMI, and led the integration of Volzhsky Abrasive Works, Russia (world’s second largest manufacturer of silicon carbide) with the company. In April 2006, he was appointed Chairman of Tube Investments of India (TII) where he was involved, together with the team, in developing a strong engineering-focused business to address opportunities in the transportation sector as a critical component supplier. Murugappan, who has a Master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, is on the board of several companies, including Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd and Cyient Ltd. He had served on the Board of Governors of IIT-Madras for six years till November 2011 and enabled many industry-academic partnerships.
Raj Raghavan, Head-HR, APAC, Amazon will join IndiGo Airlines in April, as senior VP-HR. Talking about his stint with Amazon, and his new assignment, he said that he enjoyed every moment with Amazon, and was extremely delighted to explore bigger opportunities that lie ahead. Raghavan joined Amazon India in 2011 as director and country HR leader and five years later he was elevated as the HR-Head for the Asia-Pacific, which included India, China and the recent acquisition of Souq in the Middle-East. Amazon has been moving up the ladder since he joined. When he joined, Amazon had only 3,500 employees, and since then the company has grown in size and the workforce strength increased to 50,000. He has played a pivotal role in not just enabling this level of growth, but also in helping launch Amazon. in, where he led HR across the entirety of the business, including launching its first FC operations in the country. Earlier, he was head of HR for GE’s Global Research and India Technology Centers. He has also worked at Hindustan Unilever, Ford Motor Company and HSBC.
D.P. Singh, Vice President and HR-Head, India and South Asia, IBM, has joined Chandigarh University as Senior Executive Vice President. He was with IBM since January 2003 and retired recently. “It is time to give back. The education industry needs experienced talent and what could be a better opportunity than to join a university? The sector also provides a great opportunity for continuous learning,” he said about the move. He rose up the ranks to become director-HR, IBM Daksh and area HR leader IBM (North) and HR leader, the Middle East and Africa, before finally donning the hat of VP and HR head, India and South Asia, IBM. He started his career 38 years ago with Eicher. He has also worked with Montari industries. During his professional journey, he has had the opportunity to work with automobile, chemicals, eyewear and eye care, packaging inks, BPO and IT industries.
Pepsi has been a long-time partner of ICC and it has gone a step further with PespiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi taking over as ICC Independent Chairman, and as the governing body’s first independent female director. Nooyi will join the board in June this year to align with the team, following the unanimous confirmation of her appointment at a meeting held recently, according to an ICC release. This was approved by the ICC Full Council in June last year as part of a wide-ranging constitutional change aimed at improving the governance of the sport. Indra will be appointed for a two-year term although she may be reappointed for two further terms with a maximum six-year consecutive period of service. She has been consistently ranked by Fortune magazine among the World’s Most Powerful Women. She is responsible for a global food and beverage portfolio that includes 22 brands generating more than $1 billion each in annual retail sales, including Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola.
The tenure of Amitabh Kant, the NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has been extended for yet another year. Kant, who was appointed the CEO of the government think tank in the year 2016 has been extended a two-year term, according to a release issued by the company after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the extension of Kant’s tenure until 30 June 2019. Kant is a 1980-batch IAS officer from the Kerala cadre. Before taking over as the CEO of the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti Aayog), he was Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. Kant’s extension order was issued by the Department of Personnel and Training. It was cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A former Indian Administrative Service officer, Kant earlier served as the secretary in the Department of Investment Promotion and Publicity. He was also the chief executive officer of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project and the “Incredible India” campaign was his brainchild.
A postgraduate in human resources from the University of Strathclyde, Scott Kelly has been promoted by Hitachi Vantara as its chief human resource officer. Kelly joined the company in the year in 2005 as VP-HR, Hitachi Data Systems for the EMEA and APAC region of the company which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi. In addition to assuming the role of COO, Kelly will continue to serve as Hitachi Vantara’s chief transformation officer, leading the company’s enterprise-wide initiatives to drive its global growth strategy. He has been responsible for all aspects of human resources at Hitachi Vantara, including HR information systems, workforce planning and staffing, total compensation, performance management, management development, leadership succession planning, diversity and advocacy, HR legal compliance, organisation development and management support consulting.
Pune-born Vikas Sathaye, who grew up in the Mumbai suburb of Mulund, was among a scientific and engineering awardwinning team at the Oscars 2018 Scientific and Technical Awards, held at the Beverly Hills recently. The four-member team was honoured for the concept, design, engineering and implementation of the Shotover K1 Camera System, which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences describes as a six-axis stabilised aerial camera mount that has an enhanced ability to frame shots while looking straight down and getting a steady footage. After school, Sathaye completed a diploma in Instrumentation from VPM’s Polytechnic, Thane, followed by a BE in Electronics from VIT Pune, and an M-Tech in Instrumentation from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He taught at Pune’s Cummins College of Engineering for Women for seven years, during which he was sent to Italy for a project with Fiat for three months. It was this experience that inspired him to enter the field of embedded software technology. In 1999, he took up a job in Tata Honeywell as an industrial trainee after which he moved to New Zealand where he worked for a series of companies before joining Shotover Camera Systems. In 2012, Sathaye decided to relocate to Adelaide, Australia where he has lived for the last five years. During that time, Shotover K1 has been used in many Hollywood blockbusters and in March 2017, it received a Technical Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Camera Operators after which the company decided to recommend K1 for the Science and Technology Academy Awards.
The youngest CEO in Tata Group’s history, Brotin Banerjee, has called it quits from the company after he took over as the CEO of Tata Housing Development Corporation in the year 2008. He is believed to have taken the step citing personal reasons. The board of directors has accepted his resignation and is in the process of appointing a new CEO. This has been the second blow for the group after Tata Power Co. Ltd CEO and MD Anil Sardana resigned, also citing personal reasons. It has been a long innings for Banerjee with the company who was instrumental in reviving and building Tata Housing, a company that was set up in 1984 and then revived in late 2006. He joined Tata Housing as deputy managing director in 2006 and was promoted to CEO and managing director in 2008. Banerjee will oversee the transition in consultation with Banmali Agrawala, president, infrastructure, defence and aerospace, Tata Sons. This company sells homes from Rs.5 lakh to Rs.14 crore and has around 70 million sq ft of projects under various stages of development. Late last December, Hines, a global real estate investment and management firm, who were interested in the Tata Housing’s premium wellness-themed project Serein at Thane, Maharashtra said they would invest $23 million. Banerjee has been associated with Tata Group for quite a while. Before joining Tata Housing, Banerjee was CEO of Barista Coffee Co. Ltd (in which Tata Coffee Ltd had bought a stake) and prior to that, was with Tata Chemicals Ltd. It has been over a decade since Banerjee has been associated with the Tata Group, and he is the third Tata CEO to exit in the past 12 months.
Malayalam actress Priya Prakash Varrier has grabbed eyeballs across the country with her ‘one wink at a time’, and is the third celebrity worldwide to gain more than 606 thousand followers on Instagram in a single day. According to a report, she is next only to popular American model and TV personality Kylie Jenner and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, who have recorded more number of followers on Instagram in a single day. She raises her eyebrows, winks, smiles and steals the hearts of the viewer in the process too. With that, Priya has now set a new record on social media. While Kylie Jenner remains on top with 806 thousand followers in a single day, Ronaldo is at the second spot with 650 thousand followers on the photo-sharing platform. Priya Varrier is at third place, with 606K followers.
Francis Padamadan is now being rewarded for his 15-year stint with KellyOCG. The company has elevated him as senior director, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and business process services (BPS) practices for the Asia-Pacific region with an extended role. In his new role, he will be responsible for retention and growth of the RPO and BPS businesses in the ASEAN region, Australia, New Zealand and the India market. Padamadan has been with the talent management solutions company, Kelly, since 2002 in various roles. In the last 15 years, he has been instrumental in scaling up Kelly’s direct hiring business in India across the financial, IT, scientific, engineering and consumer sectors, including temporary and contract staffing. “Padamadan brings extensive knowledge in global account management and large business operations to the table,” stated Peter Hamilton, vice-president and regional director APAC, commenting on the elevation. Padamadan shared his thought as he said, “RPO and BPS can be a panacea for the talent woes faced by several key sectors. Hence, our number one priority is to help organisations through our customised talent management offerings. Our focus for RPO and BPS across India and South-East Asia would be mainly with global in-house centres, shared services of banking and financial sectors followed by life science. This is based on our robust delivery capability and the success we have had with many customers”.
Ashish Ambasta moved to Aon Hewitt where he will be leading the business for culture & engagement practice at Aon Hewitt, in India. This is after his stint of over two years at Willis Towers Watson as the director where he was with the employee insights and assessments. Besides this new role, Ambasta will also be responsible for managing the business in terms of driving revenue growth, profitability, and innovation. He is the custodian of Best Employer Study, Customer Acquisition & Retention through delivering value along with leading a strong team of extremely bright consultants. With a doctorate in Positive Emotions, Happiness and Performance in the Indian work environment, Ambasta has also held strategic roles, at People Business Consulting and Gallup Consulting, in the past. He started his career as a sales and marketing manager with Kotak Life Insurance post his MMS from the University of Mumbai. He was also a visiting faculty for marketing and entrepreneurship at Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education, Mumbai, from 2006 to 2012. He is also a founder of the School of Entrepreneurial Exploration (SEE) and has been helping over a million people explore entrepreneurship in India, through this non-profit venture, which he started in the year 2010.
by Joe Williams
