Zach Kirkhorn
Deepak AhujaAfter Tesla reported $139 million profit for the fourth quarter of 2018, generating a record $7.2 billion in revenue, its Founder and CEO Elon Musk dropped a bomb, saying the company’s Indian-origin Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja will be retiring. Ahuja, who worked out of Tesla’s San Carlos headquarters, quit Tesla in 2015, only to rejoin in 2017. In his place, Zach Kirkhorn, previously the company’s Vice President of finance is taking over. Kirkhorn had only been the VP of finance for two months prior to the announcement. However, current CFO Ahuja said, “I feel really good about Zach taking over. He’s proven himself over the years with many tough challenges he’s worked on.” Kirkhorn has a finance degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard and has been with the company for a decade in various finance roles. Ahuja noted that he would remain an outside advisor to Tesla and CEO Elon Musk noted that he’d “hope that would be for years to come”.
Global software major Infosys’ philanthropic arm said that it will restore the Panchakalyani lake in Karnataka’s Mandya district. “The Foundation will restore the lake by cleaning the tank, removing silt and waste deposit, ensuring structural and chemical conservation of Panchakalyani and a nearby tank called Ganeshan Honda, reconnecting the existing canals and building a compound wall,” the city-based Infosys Foundation said in a statement here. Panchakalyani, about 140 km from here, is said to be one of the largest ancient lakes of Melukote town, which has several water bodies situated on a hilltop through which rainwater has been harvested for consumption and irrigation for decades. “The restoration project is important to improve the water quality of the lake and bring back the balance in the natural ecosystem of Melukote,” Foundation Chairperson Sudha Murty said in the statement. By preserving the lakes of Melukote, a town patronized by the empires of Hoysala, Vijayanagara and the Wodeyars of erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore, the heritage structures and legacy are also protected, Murty said.
One of South Asia’s leading digital transformation catalysts, Value Point Systems, has appointed IT industry veteran, Phaneesh Murthy as Additional Director on its board. Value Point Systems is a 28-year-old systems integrator and managed services company, which is growing fast and expanding into new technologies and new geographies. According to a statement from the company, Murthy will guide the board in creating a global vision and strategic roadmap to transform the company from an IT infrastructure products and services firm into a leader in digital transformation solutions and higher value services. With more than three decades of experiences in the IT industry, Murthy has been a pioneer in sales and marketing, product solutions, structuring and managing outsourcing deals. Prior to joining Value Point Systems, Murthy served as the Chief Executive Officer and President at iGATE Corporation where he led the turnaround effort. He has also served as the Director of Infosys.
PV Sindhu, listed as the world’s seventh-highest paid sportswoman on the Forbes list last year, has acquired a sponsorship deal with the Chinese sports brand, Li Ning. The deal is of a whopping amount of Rs.50 crore and is for a period of four years. This record deal comes after Kidambi Srikanth was offered Rs.35 crore over a period of four years by the same company last month. This deal can be seen as one of the biggest deals in the history of world badminton. “Sindhu’s deal is one of the biggest in world badminton. It is close to Rs.50 crore for sponsorship and equipment,” Mahender Kapoor, director, Sunlight Sports Pvt. Ltd., the multi-national exclusive partner of Li-Ning in India,” was quoted as saying by the PTI. Sindhu rose to fame and glory when she won an Olympic silver medal in Rio Olympics. This is Li Ning’s second stint with Sindhu. There earlier deal was in the year 2014-15 for a sum of 1.25 crore per year.
Matt CliffordEntrepreneur First (EF), a pioneering UK based global talent investor, announced its launch in India and the appointment of Esha Tiwary as General Manager (GM). EF also announced its first-ever cohort of 50 founders in Bengaluru, its sixth global location. Entrepreneur First has a first-of-its-kind programme model that invests in outstanding individuals, even before they have an idea and helps them find co-founders and raise seed funding. This model has been running successfully in five locations around the world - London, Paris, Berlin, Hong Kong and Singapore. EF focuses on deep tech companies that build on defensible technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, AR/VR, robotics etc. and in the past has funded companies across a broad spectrum of industries including space, satellites, medical devices, logistics, marine technologies, insurance, banking, fintech, education, agriculture and many more. Finalized startups from EF Bengaluru will pitch to well-recognized regional and global investors at Investor Demo Day in Asia next July. Also present on the Investor Demo Day will be startup counterparts from EF’s Hong Kong and Singapore programmes. Speaking to journalists at the India launch, Matt Clifford, Chief Executive and Co-Founder, Entrepreneur First said, “We invest in people who have the will, ambition and skills to succeed. At EF, our investment is in talented individuals who go on to find the right co-founder in their cohort and build globally competitive companies. We believe that the world is missing out on it’s best founders and it matters what the most ambitious people do with their lives.” Entrepreneur First also announced the appointment of Esha Tiwary as General Manager, India. Esha has spent several years in the startup ecosystem in India and has a deep understanding of the space. Matt Clifford further added, “We are very ambitious about the Indian market and can foresee this becoming one of the largest global plays for EF. Given our ambition for India, we have brought in Esha Tiwary to lead our India operations. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in building and scaling startups and will be an asset for EF. We welcome Esha.”
French carmaker, Renault has announced that the Renault India leadership is set to undergo a change. Venkatram Mamillapalle has been appointed as the new Renault India head and will take over the leadership duties from March 1. He takes over from Sumit Sawhney who had been heading Renault’s India operations since 2012. Under Sumit Sawhney’s leadership, Renault saw a fair amount of success in the Indian market thanks to the launch of the Duster and later, the Kwid. Sumit Sawhney will continue to be a part of the Renault team and operate in the Africa-Middle East, India Region but his final position hasn’t yet been disclosed. Venkatram Mamillapalle who till recently was the Head of Renault-Nissan- Avtovaz Purchasing Organization in Russia comes with extensive automotive experience and has worked with various Indian and International OEM’s. He will report to Fabrice Cambolive - Chairman, Africa-Middle-East, India Region for Groupe Renault. “India is an important market for Groupe Renault’s future growth plans. I am confident that Venkatram will build on the momentum and will further drive the growth and performance of our operations in India”, said Cambolive.
Livspace, an online home decor startup, has appointed former Flipkart executive Kartikeya Bhandari as its first Chief Marketing Officer. At Flipkart, Bhandari was senior Marketing Director. Bhandari will lead overall brand, marketing, and demand generation efforts at the home design firm as it enters its next phase of growth and expansion, Livspace said in a statement. He will report to Anuj Srivastava, CEO, Livspace. “Kartikeya’s vast experience in online retail and marketing will help us accelerate our brand goals,” said Anuj Srivastava, CEO and co-founder of Livspace. An MBA graduate from the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta, Bhandari had worked with Walmart-owned Flipkart for almost five years. Bhandari had also spent eight years at Nokia, serving as the global product marketing manager.
Vakrangee Limited (VL), announced the appointment of Blue Dart veteran Anil Khanna as its new Managing Director & Group CEO effective from January 25, 2019. Prior to Vakrangee, Khanna was the Managing Director of Blue Dart Express Limited since 2007. Dinesh Nandwana, the founder promoter, has been elevated to the role of Executive Chairman and remains fully committed and would continue to play an active role in the business strategy and operations. Commenting on the same, Nandwana, Founder Promoter & Executive Chairman, said, “We are delighted to welcome Anil Khanna to the Vakrangee leadership team and family. With over four decades of proven business track record, Anil Khanna has the right combination of the wealth of knowledge, leadership and business acumen to propel our company to new heights of growth and aspiration. We are confident that he will play a key role in the continued growth at Vakrangee.” Commenting on his appointment, Khanna, Managing Director & Group CEO of Vakrangee Ltd. said, “I am excited to join Vakrangee, a company that has built an overwhelming reputation for being the pioneer for the last mile reach presence through an asset-light franchisee- based business model in the country and delivering superior services to its clients. Despite the outstanding successes achieved thus far, I strongly believe that Vakrangee’s best years lie ahead. I am looking forward to sharing my experiences and tapping into my deep knowledge to continue to drive and accelerate Vakrangee growth. With a growing business and a vibrant team, it will be my endeavour to steer Vakrangee to scale new heights. I am honored and glad at this opportunity to oversee and contribute to the growth of this company.” Khanna has 40 years of experience in various industries and has been with Blue Dart since 1992 and he moved to the position of Managing Director since 2007. Under his leadership and guidance, Blue Dart was able to broaden its strategic focus from being an air express company to a full-fledged logistics organization offering a wide range of products and services, as well as industry- specific solutions in air and ground express segments. Khanna is a graduate from St Stephen’s College, Delhi and holds an MBA degree in Marketing and Finance from UBS, Chandigarh.
Shilpa Shetty’s husband and entrepreneur Raj Kundra invested an undisclosed amount into tech startup, Armsprime Media. A new age technology that helps celebrity and influencers build and monetize their own customized apps. The technology comes with multiple unique and customizable features from celebrity shout outs to merchandising, VOD and online stores. The company has already signed three to four celebrities, generating revenue of over $100k plus a month. Speaking on the occasion Raj Kundra said: “Armsprime Media is really disruptive in nature, the features and back end technology this company offers for its celebrities and social media influencers to take control of their content is unparalleled. I have made a strategic investment in this company as I believe in the founder Saurabh Kushwah. He has created a great product, which we will make excellent together. Brands look for a way to target captive audiences and that is exactly what we have. We will be launching over 15 celebrity apps this year alone and produce multiple unique branded IP shows with our partners. We have hired Meeta Jhunjhunwala who comes with a wealth of experience in celebrity and content management to head the business development of the company.” Saurabh Kushwah added: “I couldn’t have asked for a better strategic investor than Raj, his nexus and relationships in the media industry will be a great asset in scaling up the business. My key focus is the unique technology we have created and the level of customization we can do in break speed time. We give the power to celebrities to be able to monetize their own content, which now they currently give free on their social media platforms.”
T-Hub, a leading startup engine powering entrepreneurship and innovation, announced the appointment of Ravi Narayan, former Global Director of Microsoft for Startups as its new Chief Executive Officer. Narayan has been actively involved and instrumental in India’s startup ecosystem. In a career spanning over two decades, Narayan has been a product engineer, entrepreneur, investor, mentor and a leader. He has co-founded three companies, which he led from their inception to their successful acquisitions, T-Hub said in a statement. By helping create startup density in the product space of Bengaluru, Narayan is a key player in its evolution beyond being a hub for services. Besides advising the government of Karnataka, Narayan has also advised governments of Singapore and Malaysia. As the global director of Microsoft for Startups, Narayan has helped establish accelerators and Microsoft go-to-market programmes with startups across the world, the statement added. With more than 1,100 domestic and international startups that received support to scale, various corporate partnerships and international organizational tie-ups, T-Hub, under Narayan’s leadership, will further elevate the process to build a stronger innovation ecosystem in Telangana and in India. “Hyderabad, with its mature infrastructure, active government participation and vibrant ecosystem offers the best springboard for corporations and startups looking to create new products and technologies and disrupt the existing ones,” said Ravi Narayan. “The board has selected a strong leader at a time when businesses, cities and countries around the world are focused on building robust innovation and startup ecosystems, with Telangana at the forefront of this movement,” said Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries & IT, Telangana.
Global software major Wipro launched Quick Migration to Cloud (QuMiC), a platform designed to transform the way organizations migrate to Oracle Cloud. QuMiC migrates all aspects required for a Cloud implementation process definitions, configurations, data, and code to Oracle Cloud for a wide variety of software environments. Enterprises can expect to save nearly 30 per cent in overall Cloud implementation costs and time by leveraging the QuMiC platform, Wipro claimed. The time taken to design ERP (enterprise resource planning) processes, analyze and set up the configurations for each environment during the migration process, testing, production and development will be reduced by up to 60 per cent, the company added. Wipro is a Platinum level member of Oracle Partner Network (OPN). "Wipro’s QuMiC demonstrates our expertise with Oracle Cloud and is an example of our continued investments in Oracle Cloud development,” said Ravi Purohit, Vice President and Global Head - Oracle Service Line, Modern Application Services, Wipro.
by Joe Williams
