Paytm Payments Banks, a unit of One97 Communications Ltd., has appointed veteran banker Satish Kumar Gupta as Managing Director and CEO, the company said in a statement. Gupta would be succeeding Renu Satti, who had stepped down as the CEO of Paytm Payments Bank to head the new retail segment at the company as Chief Operating Officer. This is the third CEO appointment at Paytm Payments Bank in the span of two years after former Central Bank executive Shinjini Kumar left Paytm in May 2017. Gupta joined the State Bank of India in April 1979, where he held several positions for more than three decades. In February 2011, he deputed to the National Payments Corporation of India to create India’s own card-RuPay. With over 35 years of experience in the field of banking, Gupta’s expertise will help Paytm realize the vision that it has set out for its payments bank.
AirAsia India has appointed Sanjay Kumar as its Chief Operating Officer (COO). The former IndiGo executive, whose previous assignment as Chief Commercial Officer, has over 25 years of experience in the aviation industry. Commenting on the move, AirAsia India Chairman, Ramadorai said, “We are thrilled to welcome Sanjay to the AirAsia India leadership team. He joins us at a time when the airline is in a growth momentum with an aim to venture forward in international operations.” Earlier, AirAsia India announced the appointment of Sunil Bhaskaran, a Tata Group veteran, as Managing Director.
Paris-headquartered multinational advertising and public relations company Havas Group has announced the appointment of Rana Barua as its first group CEO in India. Barua will report to Vishnu Mohan, Chairman and CEO of Havas Group, India & Southeast Asia, and work closely with the existing leadership teams. Mohan said, “Rana’s appointment is a key milestone in the Group’s ongoing efforts to build agile teams and integrated structures to deliver the most impact for clients. Rana is an ideal candidate as his expertise will build on what we have already achieved in India and take Havas Group India forward in its next phase of growth and expansion.” Prior to this assignment, Barua held CEO roles with Contract India, Creativeland Asia, as well as worked with agencies like Ogilvy, Rediffusion Y&R, Mc- Cann, JWT and held leadership profiles in leading Radio stations such as Red FM and Radio City. “The growing complexity of platforms and channels calls for a multi-dimensional approach to marketing and advertising and the Havas Village model of collaboration and integration is exactly what clients are looking for. I am extremely excited to be a part of Havas Group’s futuristic agency model and looking forward to working with the team to start a new chapter for Havas Group in India,” said Barua.
Vinesh Nair, former Head-HR at redBus, the online bus ticket and hotel booking company, takes over as Head-HR, at Practo. A graduate in psychology from Gujarat University, Nair is a certified learning and development manager from the Carlton Advanced Management Institute, USA. His experience in the area of training and development include a four-year stint with Idea Cellular as Assistant Manager, training & quality, a four-year stint with Hitachi Consulting as Manager, learning & development followed by a significant tenure as Global Manager, learning & development at Sierra Atlantic. He has also served as L&D Manager at Mars for two years, after which he joined redBus in September 2012. Nair has six years association with redBus. Practo helps healthcare providers build their presence, grow establishments and engage patients deeply. Practo facilitates to assess health issues, find the right doctor, book diagnostic tests, obtain medicines, store health records and even master new ways to lead healthier lives.
Ajay Kumar takes over as Head-HR of the technology company, Continental. He will be responsible for both the Automotive and Rubber Groups in India, covering over 8000 employees spread across 15 locations, eight manufacturing plants and eight legal entities. He will be spearheading initiatives to build transformational leadership and a progressive work culture. Kumar will also ensure deployment of solutions to enhance competence, performance, and employee engagement. Earlier, Kumar was Head-HR for Continental’s Technical center India (TCI), the in-house R&D center for Continental globally. He was instrumental in leading TCI’s rapid growth in India, bringing the headcount to over 3000 engineers supporting all three automotive divisions of Continental, for its global and regional markets. TCI is well on its way to becoming a center of competence for different technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and ADAS technologies. Having completed his graduation in economics and statistics from the University of Calicut, this college topper of his batch did his Master’s in human resource management from Pune University. Kumar joined Continental India in 2015 and has over two decades of HR leadership experience. In addition to leading the rapid growth of TCI, he was also instrumental in streamlining HR practices at TCI for which the organization received several industry accolades for best HR practices from premier industry bodies. He himself is a recipient of several prestigious HR leadership awards. Commenting on the appointment, Prashanth Doreswamy, MD and India market leader, Continental India, says, “In Kumar, we see a progressive leader who will be at the helm of steering Continental’s strong value system, complementing the organization’s accelerated growth. We have a focused vision for human relations at Continental called ‘Future Work’, which includes diversity, leadership, flexibility, and learning as its key components. With his expertise and an impressive track record, I am confident that Kumar will drive Continental India towards realizing this vision".
Greif, a global industrial packaging products and services has appointed Bala V Sathyanarayanan as senior Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer. Bala will also be a member of the executive leadership team. He will be based out of the company headquarters in Columbus, Ohio in the US. Prior to this, Bala was executive Vice President, Human Resources for North American Operations at Xerox Corporation. At Xerox, Bala has led several initiatives that drove business transformations, built winning cultures and provided superior delivery of business outcomes throughout the enterprise. Bala, an engineering graduate and an MBA in general management from Madras University, also holds an MBA in HR from Rutgers University and is graduated from the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He has over 27 years of experience and has worked in a variety of human resources, talent management and operational roles. Prior to joining Xerox, Bala was with Hewlett Packard Inc as Head of Human Resources for HP’s Americas Region. In this role, Sathyanarayanan provided HR leadership to the business management teams within the region, including those in USA, Canada and all other Latin American countries. He has a proven track record of success in helping management teams align their HR strategies with their overall business strategies.
Bill Stith, the former International Business Machines Corp (IBM) executive will revive the fortunes of the Bengaluru-based company Wipro’s healthcare and life sciences division. Stith headed IBM’s healthcare and life sciences business in the US. He will be the third top external hire after Chief Executive Officer Abidali Neemuchwala, which is also Wipro’s third top-level management change in 2018. Neemuchwala, who took over as CEO in 2016, has hired Christophe Martinoli as the Head of Continental Europe and Harmeet Chauhan as the Head of Industrial and Engineering Services business division. “Wipro confirms the appointment of Bill Stith as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Health strategic business unit,” said Wipro’s spokesperson while confirming the development. This move was an initiative after the Wipro’s head of healthcare and life sciences division, Jeffrey Heenan-Jalil resigned early this year. In another move, Wipro also appointed Sanjeev Singh as the head of its state-run enterprises India business. Singh was formerly the CEO of Aegis for India and Sri Lanka.
Abhijit Bose will join WhatsApp early next year as its India head. According to WhatsApp, Bose will develop the first full country team outside of California, and it will be based in Gurugram. “WhatsApp is deeply committed to India and we are excited to keep building products that help people connect and support India’s fast-growing digital economy. As a successful entrepreneur himself, Abhijit knows what it takes to build meaningful partnerships that can serve businesses across India,” said Matt Idema, Chief Operating Officer of WhatsApp. Bose’s appointment comes less than a month after a meeting between India’s information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, and Chris Daniels, WhatsApp’s Vice President. In the meeting, Daniels had told Prasad that WhatsApp had incorporated a local unit in India whose operations would begin soon. In an earlier meeting with Daniels, Prasad had requested him to come up with ways to trace the origins of fake messages on WhatsApp. Daniels rejected this demand, but said that WhatsApp would set up a local corporate entity and appoint a grievance officer to address complaints to curb the spread of rumors. Bose has a big responsibility, as the Indian government has blamed WhatsApp for not doing enough to curb the spread of misinformation. rumors circulated on WhatsApp had resulted in numerous mob-lynching related deaths across India this year. “WhatsApp is special and can be a major partner for financial inclusion and economic growth in India. It’s not only how so many families stay in touch, but increasingly it’s how businesses are engaging with their customers. WhatsApp can positively impact the lives of hundreds of millions of Indians, allowing them to actively engage and benefit from the new digital economy,” said Bose, who graduated from Cornell University, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He had previously worked at Oracle and Bain & Co. He co-founded a digital payments solutions provider Ezetap in 2011, where he also served as CEO.
There has been an exodus of top brass in Yes Bank with its non-executive chairman, Ashok Chawla calling it quits after his name figured in a CBI charge sheet filed in the Aircel-Maxis case, which was followed by an independent director Vasant Gujarathi, tendering his resignation on the same day. Following these two in the exit mode, the former Telecom Secretary, R Chandrashekar resigned from the board, citing personal reasons. As per the initial information it is given to understand that both the promoter groups led by its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Rana Kapoor and Madhu Kapur are in favor of a clean-up and overhaul of the Yes Bank board. The new board members will be acceptable to both the promoter groups, which are in favor of overhauling the Yes Bank board to weed out under-performing members and address past governance issues, according to people aware of the development. Earlier, former State Bank of India Chairman, OP Bhatt resigned from the panel set up by the bank to find a successor for Rana Kapoor. It may be recalled that Bhatt is under the CBI’s scanner in connection with loans given to the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, promoted by fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya. The central bank has asked the private sector lender to find a replacement for its founder Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer by Jan 31.
Berkshire Hathaway, CEO, Warren Buffett is well-known for keeping a keen eye on value creation. So it is good news for India’s largest digital payment platform Paytm, after the multinational conglomerate acquired a 4% stake by investing about $300 million in Paytm last August. Now Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s company could see its valuation hit $16 billion as it has started seeing a surge in investor interest. Paytm’s parent company, One97 Communications is also said to be in talks with investors from US and China regarding a secondary share sale. Earlier, while confirming the investment by Berkshire Hathaway, One97 Communications said that it is an “endorsement from the world’s most respected investor for Paytm’s journey, and India’s long-term growth story.” Now, Todd Combs, Investment Manager at Berkshire Hathaway has joined Paytm board of directors that includes Joseph Tsai, co-founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Alibaba; Eric Jing, CEO, Ant Financial; Mark Schwartz, Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asia and Pallavi Shroff, managing partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas. Paytm founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma said, “We feel both excited and humbled by this endorsement. Berkshire’s experience in financial services, and long-term investment horizon is going to be a huge advantage in Paytm’s journey of bringing 500 million Indians to the mainstream economy through financial inclusion. It is my honor to welcome Todd to our board, where he will bring his wealth of experience to guide our management team.” Impressed by Paytm, Combs said, “I am excited about being a part of Paytm’s growth story, as it looks to transform payments and financial services in India.”
A top leadership position which was lying vacant for the past 18 months at Flipkart has finally been filled with the appointment of Smriti Singh as the new Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). The former HR-Head for Sony Pictures Networks India, will report to Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, and will head a team of five senior directors. She will hold overall responsibility for Flipkart people, talent, rewards, and the L&D charter. She is expected to join Flipkart in December. Singh has an experience of over two decades, having started her professional journey with Xerox. During her career, she has worked with Genpact and NBC Universal. She has even held the position of HR leader at GE Healthcare, Asia Pacific. Singh’s appointment comes after former COO, Nitin Seth, quit in May last year. After Seth’s exit, Krishnamurthy took the additional charge of the HR division.
by Joe Williams
