Adani maximises his networth in 2021
Indian billionaire Gautam Shantilal Adani, Chairman and Founder of the Adani Group has added $16.2 billion more to his coffers in 2021, taking his total net worth to $50 billion, becoming the 26th richest person in the world, as per the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The first generation entrepreneur has silently become the year's biggest wealth gainer, attaining pole position globally against the likes of billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, as shares of most of the Adani Group stocks have rallied at least 50% this year. Adani's newly acquired wealth quotient dwarfs the $8.1 billion added by Asia's richest and Adani's compatriot Mukesh Ambani. Adani has been rapidly expanding his conglomerate, adding airports, ports, coal mines and data centres in India. Recently, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited announced that Windy Lakeside Investment Ltd, a unit of Warburg Pincus, will invest Rs.800 crore for a 0.49% stake in the company. Google Co-founder Larry Page is ranked second in terms of highest gain in wealth with a growth of $14.3 billion. Amazon Inc's Jeff Bezos is the richest person on the planet with a net worth of $183 billion, followed by Elon Musk with a net worth of $180 billion.
Maju VargheseMaju Varghese joins the White House as Biden's deputy assistant
Maju Varghese has been appointed as U.S. President Joe Biden's Deputy Assistant and as Director of the White House Military Office. As the Director of the White House Military Office, he will oversee military support, which includes providing medical support, emergency medical services, and presidential transportation and organising official ceremonies and functions. This will be his second stint at the White House. Varghese, who was the Chief Operating Officer of Biden's campaign run for Presidentship, managed logistics for both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. He also became the executive director of their inauguration including the swearing in ceremonies and the festivities around it. He, in fact, steered the inauguration through the difficulties of the coronavirus pandemic and the threat of attacks post the 6th of January Capitol Hill riots. He mobilised the ceremony and events which was a confluence of the star studded "Celebrate America" concert featuring singers such as Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, and Justin Timberlake, and hosted by actor Tom Hanks. He was also former President Barack Obama's special assistant and the deputy director of advance, a position in which he worked on organising Obama's travel in the U.S. and abroad. Varghese, born in the U.S. to immigrant parents from Thiruvalla in Kerala is a trained lawyer. He joins the lists of more than 20 Indian Americans who have been appointed to senior positions in the Biden administration.
Naureen HassanNaureen Hassan becomes first VP & COO, Fed Reserve Bank, NY
Naureen Hassan, a stalwart in the financial services sector for 25 years, becomes the first Vice President (VP) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, effective March 15. Naureen, an Indian American was approved by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for her new role. As the first VP, she will be New York Fed's second ranking officer and serve as an alternate voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee. She has held many vital positions across various capacities in her illustrious career, with a prime focus on digital and business process transformation. Her leadership strength, a deep commitment to nurturing diverse teams, and wide ranging technology and financial experience is expected to spearhead the Federal Bank. In her most recent role for the past four years, she was the Chief Digital Officer for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management (MSWM). She also worked with the Charles Schwab Corporation as VP (corporate strategy), moving up as EVP (Executive Vice President) of investor services, segments, and platforms. She was a former member of the Board of Directors at OneSpan, a $250M revenue public security software and hardware firm, and with Ascensus, one of the largest independent recordkeeping services provider. She was also a third party administrator, and government savings facilitator in the U.S. A board member of the California Academy of Sciences and the Cathedral School for Boys in San Francisco, Princeton and Stanford's alumnus is also engaged with the Women's Initiative for Self Employment in the U.S.
T V SwaminathanFormer Nissan CDO joins Tata Consumer Products
Tata Consumer Products ropes in T V Swaminathan as a Global Chief Digital Officer (CDO), effective from March 2021. Bringing in over 24 years of experience, Swaminathan has relinquished his most recent designation that of a Chief Digital Officer of Nissan Motors, Japan. In this new role, he will be responsible for the design and execution of a digital roadmap for Tata Consumer Products, enabling the business from a digital perspective, as well as enhancing analytical capabilities. His career journey exhibits multiple leadership roles across various businesses in General Electric (GE). In the past, he has also served Accenture and Servion Global Solutions.
Indu ShahaniFormer Mumbai Sheriff joins EuroKids International
EuroKids International appoints Dr Indu Shahani, former Sheriff of Mumbai to its Board. EuroKids will seek to leverage her as a leading Indian educationist who has acclaimed worldwide acknowledgement. She is a visionary thought leader with a significant contribution to education in the last 40 years and value based leadership. The President and Chairperson of new age educational schools in Design and Innovation, (ISDI) Management & Entrepreneurship and Entertainment Arts (ISME), she was the first Indian to be appointed Vice Chair on the Board of the Governors of the International Baccalaureate and has over a decade of experience with the IB worldwide. She has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters (D. Litt) degree by the University of Westminster, London. As a Member of the University Grants Commission, UGC at the national level. She is an Independent Director on the boards of diverse sets of listed companies and the Chair of Women's India Trust (WIT) and the former Chair of United Way.
Sanket AtalSalesforce appoints Sanket Atal as MD, India
Cloud software firm Salesforce appoints Sanket Atal as Senior Vice President (SVP) and Managing Director (MD) Sites (India). He will report to Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO and Chairperson, Salesforce India, a global leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Atal will be driving the next phase of growth for Salesforce in India combining his design thinking and digital strategies to build breakthrough customer experiences. Prior to Salesforce, Atal has had stints with Intuit India as MD and has also served Oracle, MakeMyTrip, and CA Technologies in former roles. India is home to the second highest Salesforce workforce outside of the U.S., with over 4,000 employees across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi. Launched in 2016, the Salesforce Centre of Excellence (CoE) located in Hyderabad has fuelled global innovation, also built end to end solutions for customers. Atal is an alumnus of the prestigious U.S. Cornell University, University of Wisconsin and the University of Oregon.
Rajiv BakshiRajiv Bakshi joins ZEE as COO, Revenue
Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE) has appointed Rajiv Bakshi to the newly created role as the Chief Operations Officer (Revenue). In his new role, the former Reliance Entertainment's Big Synergy Chief Executive will interestingly, and once again report to Rahul Johri, President Business, South Asia at ZEE. Bakshi was reporting to Johri during his days with Discovery Networks. Johri had subsequently moved to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as its first CEO, before joining ZEE last year. At ZEE, Bakshi will be responsible for achieving revenue objectives by identifying and leveraging internal synergies across all linear and digital platforms. He will also lead the sales strategy and operations, focusing on driving all revenue generation platforms. His role will entail leveraging technology to augment the revenue vertical while driving ZEE's marketing initiatives and strengthen relations with key external stakeholders and partners. An alumnus of the Harvard Business School, Bakshi brings in over 20 years of experience across business transformation, corporate strategy, brand management, product development, and digital strategy and market expansions across verticals. Bakshi led the creative team, and built a multi platform, multi geography and multi lingual partnership with OTT platforms and national and regional language TV networks during his stint with Reliance Entertainment's Big Synergy. He was associated with Discovery Networks for 13 years where he spearheaded Discovery's strategic development and growth in India and South Asia.
Sameer AggarwalSameer Aggarwal joins Sam's Club as CEO
Walmart has promoted Sameer Aggarwal, the company's India head as the Chief Operating Officer (CEO) of the US e-commerce vertical of Sam's Club. Sam's Club, the members' only discount shopping retailer, is named after Walmart founder Sam Walton and is a $60 billion annual business. Aggarwal's latest elevation at Sam's Club is his fourth promotion, coming within a short span of three years at Walmart. Aggarwal had joined Walmart India as its chief strategy and administrative officer in April 2018. His elevation started within eight months of his joining Walmart India, as he was elevated to the role of the chief business officer in 2019 and was made the deputy CEO a year after that. He was named the new CEO of Walmart India in April 2020, replacing Krish Iyer who retired. Aggarwal, a retail veteran, has also worked with Yum Brands in Thailand and UK retailer Sainsbury's in London.
Shreehas TambeBiocon Biologics promotes Shreehas Tambe as Deputy CEO
Biocon Biologics Ltd., a subsidiary of Biocon's biosimilars has promoted Shreehas Tambe as Deputy CEO, effective March 2021. Prior to his new role, Shreehas was the CEO and a key member of the Executive Leadership Team at Biocon Biologics. A Biocon veteran, Shreehas joined the company in 1997 and has subsequently played key operational and strategic roles in his over two decades of service. He also led diverse teams across R&D, Manufacturing and Projects and Engineering. In previous roles as the Senior Vice President and Global Head of Biocon's Insulins business unit, he was responsible for the P&L and expanded the insulin portfolio across multiple geographies. He led the development, approval and launch of insulin analogues in Japan, the EU, and the U.S. It was under his leadership that Biocon made its first overseas investment in R&D and Manufacturing in 2015, building Asia's largest integrated insulins' complex in Malaysia, approved by the U.S. FDA and EMA. He was the Global Head of Projects and Engineering and led the multi million dollar investment in Malaysia, managing and providing strategic direction to the investment. He began his journey as a Management Trainee in the R&D department, leading the design and development of a novel bioreactor, the PlaFractor, a unique solid state bioreactor that got Biocon its first U.S. patent bagging the National Award for the Best Technology of the Year in 2001. An alumnus of ICT (UDCT), University of Mumbai, he also studied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology at the University of Pune. In 2020, he received the 'Distinguished Alumnus Award (Professional)' from his alma mater ICT, Mumbai.
Pooja GuptaFormer Myntra Exec joins Delhivery as CPO
Pooja Gupta has been appointed to a logistic firm, Delhivery's executive team as its Chief People Officer (CPO). Delhivery, a leading fulfilment platform for digital commerce has charted out Pooja's new role where she will be working with the senior leadership on organisation design and systems, developing strategic HR programmes and policies, and strengthening employee experience. For the firm with a strength of 50,000 plus employee, Pooja's appointment comes at a suitable time as the company embarks on its next phase of growth. Pooja brings in 18 years of experience across different geographies & industries, having started her career at SAP. She has formerly served as the SVP and Head HR for over five years at Myntra.com and was also the People Practice Partner at Kalaari Capital.
Pranay JivrajkaOla co-founder Pranay Jivrajka quits
Pranay Jivrajka, Co-founder of Bengaluru based cab hailing giant Ola has quit relinquishing a decade long association with the company. Jivrajka was the CEO of its food business and had served as the COO of the company until 2016 and designated as a founding partner as Ola's growth gained momentum. Jivrajka's exit adds to the numbers of some high level exits that have impacted the company including Ola and Ola Electric over the past year. After Ola acquired Foodpanda in 2017, Jivrajka was put in charge of the food delivery business. When the company decided to pivot Foodpanda under Ola Foods, it was under Jivrajka's leadership that Ola's foods business started 50 kitchens with multiple brands across Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi and few other metros, as well as a few cloud kitchens brands under the Ola mantle. Gaurav Porwal has since taken up Jivrajka's role with interim charges of Ola Foods and Ola Fleets along with managing his current position of COO of global mobility at Ola.