Long-time leader Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo Inc. will step aside as chief executive, handing the future of the company to one of her lieutenants. Nooyi, 62 years old, steered the maker of Mountain Dew, Gatorade and Doritos chips for a dozen years through the changing landscape, defeating an activist investor’s attempt to break up the company. Ramon Laguarta, a 22-year PepsiCo veteran who was promoted to president last year, will take over as CEO, according to company sources. PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi will step down on October 3 after a 12-year stint at the helm of the food and beverage multinational. The 62-year-old India-born executive has spent 24 years at PepsiCo. The company announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously elected Ramon Laguarta to succeed Nooyi as Chief Executive Officer. However, Nooyi will remain Chairman until early 2019 to ensure a smooth and seamless transition. Commenting on the move, Nooyi said, “Leading PepsiCo has truly been the honor of my lifetime, and I’m incredibly proud of all we have done over the past 12 years to advance the interests not only of shareholders, but all our stakeholders in the communities we serve. Growing up in India, I never imagined I’d have the opportunity to lead such an extraordinary company.” And she went on to add, “Ramon Laguarta is exactly the right person to build on our success. He is a terrific executive with a long and proven track record of growing businesses. He has a deep understanding of the changing preferences of consumers and other critical trends unfolding around the world, and he has demonstrated that he knows how to navigate them successfully. Ramon has been a critical partner in running the company, and I’m confident he will take PepsiCo to new and greater heights in the years to come.”
Indian-American, Seema Nanda, who took over as CEO of the opposition Democratic National Committee (DNC) recently, has vowed to fight for the soul of the country and help elect Democrats in every corner of the US. “We are fighting now for the soul of our country, for our democracy and for opportunity,” said Nanda. In this capacity, she will be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the powerful DNC. “Democrats are offering the positive solutions so desperately needed right now -- solutions forged by the strength of our diversity, the rigour of our ideas, and the decency of our values. Since Trump took office, it’s been clear that the number one best way for us to set our country back on track is to elect Democrats in every corner of our country. That’s why I took this job,” Nanda said in her first message to Democratic supporters. Nanda said supporting the Democratic party is synonymous with building a future for the children that they can be proud of. “My promise to my two teenage boys is to do all I can to create an America that is bright, fair, and that works for everyone, where opportunity for all means something,” she said.
Balaji Viswanathan has been appointed as Managing Director & CEO (Key Managerial Personnel) of SQS India BFSI Limited. Viswanathan comes with over 24 years of professional experience in the financial services domain, of which 16 years have been in the Financial Services Industry and eight years in the Outsourcing/ Offshoring of Financial Services. His last assignment was as Senior Director in charge of Global Delivery for BFSI services at Concentric which is the outsourced business division of SYNNEX Corporation, a Fortune 500 company listed on the NYSE. He has also worked with Serco, Reliance Jio Payments Bank, Yes Bank and HDFC Bank where he garnered a strong domain knowledge of Core Banking Systems, Cards, Transaction Switching, apart from being responsible for operations and technology at Master Card International on the payment network side.
HCL Technologies Ltd surpassed Wipro Ltd to become India’s third biggest software services provider, marking the first change in the pecking order of the country’s $167 billion IT outsourcing industry in six years. Noida- based HCL Technologies said its dollar revenue rose 0.8 % to $2.05 billion in the quarter from the preceding three months. Bengaluru- based Wipro’s dollar revenue declined 1.7% sequentially to $2.03 billion in the first quarter. Last year, Wipro’s full-year revenue totaled $8.06 billion, about $220 million more than HCL Technologies’ $7.84 billion. However, billionaire Shiv Nadar-led HCL Technologies expects its dollar revenue to grow by as much as 10.4% in the current fiscal year, implying that it expects to end FY19 with $8.65 billion in revenue. Azim Premji-led Wipro, which does not give a full-year revenue outlook, will need to grow 7.32% this year to retain its third position, a tough ask as the firm has not reported this level of annual growth since 2012- 13, when it grew 7.1%. Nasdaq-listed Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., which edged past Infosys Ltd in quarterly revenue in the June quarter of 2012, has not been considered in the list as it is only listed in the US. HCL Technologies’ rise has come on the back of years of underperformance by Wipro and a more aggressive approach in acquisitions. Until a few years ago, both companies used to generate significant business from managing data centers or offering infrastructure services to their clients.
Tata AIA Life Limited, a private life insurer, announced the elevation of Rishi Srivastava as the new Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of the company. He is currently Chief of Proprietary Channels, Product, Marketing & Corporate Communications at Tata AIA. Rishi Srivastava will take over from current CEO Naveen Tahilyani who moves to Hong Kong as Chief Executive Officer, Group Partnership Distribution, AIA Group, Hong Kong. Rishi, who has more than 20 years’ experience in finance and insurance, had joined Tata AIA in 2016. His appointment as CEO and MD of Tata AIA Life Limited is subject to regulatory approval from insurance regulator IRDAI, according to a company release.
Abhijit Bhaduri, the former chief learning officer at Wipro, who now is a full-time consultant, has joined the HR technology service provider, Zing HR, as an advisor. Bhaduri has always been enthusiastic about technology. His book, The Digital Tsunami, says it all. He has always held interesting views on the future of work and the way jobs will change with increasing technological advancements. He has been vocal about the same as a speaker at various events. “The Digital Tsunami is an opportunity to re-imagine the employee experience. Technology is the enabler, which will make this happen. That’s when businesses will get their ROI and employees will get an experience that is memorable,” said Bhaduri. Bhaduri was HR director at global IT giant, Microsoft, before he joined Wipro in 2009. Prior to that, he worked with multinationals, such as PepsiCo, Colgate and the advertising agency, Mudra Communications. Bhaduri is also an author of three books. Two of them are part of a series called MBA, which stands for Mediocre But Arrogant, and Married But Available. He has also authored a management guide book, titled Don’t Hire the Best. Bhaduri is on the advisory board of the prestigious chief learning officer (CLO) program of the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a part of the Governing Council of MICA, formerly Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad.
Dayanand Allapur, global head-HR, business services at Capgemini will start his new innings at Cognizant as the global head-HR, digital operations. Allapur started his career in 1993 with Pennar Aluminium. In 1996, he joined Citicorp Overseas Software as manager-human resources, and became instrumental in scaling up its workforce to over 350 employees in 18 months. In 1998, Allapur set foot in the IT industry by joining iGate Global Solutions (Mastech) as its vice-president HR & business services/director-global resources. During his tenure at iGate, Allapur was responsible for global locations including UK, Australia, the US and India. He played a key role in the integration of the Australian firm which was newly-acquired by the company. He was head-HR & people development, (India, APAC, EMEA) between 2003–2004 and looked after people development for 9,000 employees. He led a 70-member HR team spread across 10 global locations. Allapur’s stint with iGate was the longest in his 25-year old career. It is here that he evolved as a global HR professional working across geographies. He climbed up the rungs to become vice-president and head-human resources, Americas, of Patni Computer Systems, which was acquired by iGate, and also moved to Boston during that period. A postgraduate in human resources from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, he headed a 30-member team and was responsible for HR deliverables for over 3,500 employees in the Americas (USA, Canada, Mexico & Latin America) which generated over 80 per cent revenue for the company. He shouldered the role for five years, between 2005–2010.
Fashion retailer Shoppers Stop has appointed Uma Talreja as customer care associate, chief of marketing and customer officer. In her role, Talreja will be responsible for evolving customer-centric strategies and create seamless shopping and service experience across the customer lifecycle. With over 20 years of diverse experience and demonstrated success of working in brand marketing and digital initiatives across retail and fashion industries, Uma will lead the transformational role that enables business, brand, marketing, and services strategy, said Shoppers Stop. Her focus will be to leverage consumer insights and data analytics to create initiatives that help meet the changing needs of the customers. Commenting about the move, BVM Rao, Customer Care Associate and Head HR - Shoppers Stop, said, “We are delighted to have a seasoned marketing professional like Uma, who shares the same vision like us, and can help make informed decisions that will have a positive impact on delivering delightful customer experiences.”
Talreja brings with her skills in Marketing Management, Retail, Customer Relationship Management, Brand Implementation, and Digital Transformation. With a Master’s degree focused in Management Studies from the University of Mumbai, she has held several leadership positions with companies like Raymond, Burger King, Tata Trent, Aditya Birla. She had also been associated with Shoppers Stop for close to five years in her earlier stint.
Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance has appointed Indo-Canadian, Arun Bajaj, as the senior vice-president of human resources for the Alliance, an initiative to restructure human resources. In his new role, Bajaj will continue current responsibilities of managing HR at Nissan apart from managing talent management for the Alliance. He will report to Carlos Ghosn, CEO of the Renault–Nissan Alliance. He will replace Marie-Francoise Damesin, who retires as executive vice-president of human resources for the Alliance. Bajaj, who is a graduate from McGill University, Canada, will take on the responsibilities from August. “I would like to thank Marie-Francoise Damesin for her contribution to Groupe Renault and the Alliance by supporting the sustainable performance of the companies and the 450,000 employees,” said Ghosn. Bajaj started his career at Ford Credit Canada in 1995. He became a legal counsel at Ford Motor Company of Canada in 1999 and later joined Nissan Canada in 2003, as general counsel. He became director-HR, Nissan North America in 2006. There he was responsible for the provision of all HR services for manufacturing in the US—for over 1,500 administrative employees. He managed policies and employee relations programmers with the help of a staff of 45 human resource, medical/safety and communications professionals. Bajaj assumed positions of increasing responsibility in human resources management at Nissan, to become corporate vice-president, global human resources in 2014. He was based out of Japan for most of the tenure.
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) announced the appointment of Surendra Rosha as Chief Executive Officer for HSBC India, subject to regulatory approvals. “Rosha succeeds Jayant Rikhye, who is taking a leave of absence for medical reasons,” the Bank said in an official statement. Rosha, who is currently HSBC’s Head of Financial Institutions Group (FIG) for Asia-Pacific, has 27 years of experience in the financial services sector. He began his career in financial services when he joined HSBC’s India operations in 1991. Rosha, currently HSBC’s Head of Financial Institutions Group (FIG) for Asia-Pacific, will succeed Jayant Rikhye. Rosha holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Bombay University and a Masters’s degree in Business from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. “His 27 years of experience in financial services makes him ideally suited to leading our bank in India and driving forward our strategy in one of HSBC’s key markets,” said Peter Wong, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive of HSBC.
by Joe Williams
