Poonawalla, Byju and Ambani siblings grace Fortune magazine’s ‘40 under 40’ list

Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India (SII), Byju Raveendran, co-founder, Byju’s and the Ambani twins, Isha and Akash Ambani, both Board Directors with Reliance Jio, feature as emerging global leaders in the 2020 Fortune magazine’s ‘40 under 40’ annual listing of 40 influential people worldwide. The list highlights business influencers across five categories finance, technology, healthcare, government and politics, and media and entertainment. SII has inked deals with both AstraZeneca and Novavax, committing to manufacture one billion doses of each vaccine, priced at $3 a shot, for low and middle income countries and has long played a vital role in global public health. Most of SII’s 1.5 billion doses of vaccines produced annually are deployed to immunise children in low and middle-income countries through UNICEF and GAVI run-global programmes. The Ambani siblings as Jio board members, have been lauded for sealing the company’s recent megadeal with Facebook at $5.7 billion for a 9.99% stake and also a follow-on investment from tech giants Google, Qualcomm and Intel. The duo helped launch Jio Mart, that aims to challenge Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart for a slice of India’s fast-growing e-shopping segment. Byju’s, founded in 2011, that raised over $1 billion is now worth more than $10 billion. Other contenders who have gained pride of place include Akshay Naheta, Group Senior Vice President Investments at SoftBank; Sunayna Tuteja, Head of Digital Assets and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) at TD Ameritrade; Manu Kumar Jain, Global Vice President Xiaomi India; Ambar Bhattacharyya, Managing Director at Maverick Ventures; Dhaval Shah and Dharmil Sheth, co-founders of PharmEasy and Deepa Subramaniam Chief Product and Digital Officer at ACLU.

Ex-ICICI Chief to head South Indian Bank

RBI has approved Murali Ramakrishnan as Managing Director and CEO of the Kerala-based South Indian Bank Ltd, for a three-year tenure with effect from October 1, 2020. He succeeds VG Mathew whose term expires on September 30, 2020. Ramakrishnan retired earlier this year from ICICI Bank after a tenure of more than two decades. He thus becomes the first senior executive to be inducted into South India Bank from a private sector lending institution. The past had witnessed top bosses at South Indian Bank joining from public sector lenders, primarily State Bank of India. He brings in 34 years of his work experiences, gained as former chief executive of ICICI Bank’s operations in North Asia, West Asia, Sri Lanka, and Africa, where he managed a balance-sheet of around $20 billion. In his last assignment with ICICI Bank, Ramakrishnan headed a business transformation project of SME business. Besides, also responsible for strategising businesses and deliverables are met for the regional branches across China, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Bahrain, Qatar, and South Africa. Prior to this, he was the head (credit risk), head (policy, risk and BIU) and also headed four business groups, namely cluster banking group, emerging clusters group, construction equipment finance and professional equipment finance. An Engineering Graduate, Ramakrishnan is an Alumni of IIM Bangalore.

Indian software engineer is Trump’s card, showcasing legal immigration

Sudha Sundari Narayanan, Indian Software Engineer along with four other immigrants from Bolivia, Lebanon, Sudan and Ghana were sworn-in as ‘American citizens’ at a White House ceremony hosted by President Donald Trump. In a show of his support for legal immigration, U.S. President Donald Trump dramatically welcomed the Indian software developer to “the great American family of citizens” during the Republican National Convention. At the event, Narayanan was bestowed with her Certificate of Citizenship. She had moved to the United States in 2007 with her husband. While he came on a student visa, Narayanan had to rely on an F2 visa at that time. Narayanan is now a permanent residence since 2013 and also employed in the country. Reacting to the news, Narayanan said that she never dreamt that something like this would happen. “I’m just a very simple girl trying to get my family running.” She was also quoted saying that she found out that the ceremony aired during the Republican Convention “only when an excited friend called her later that night and told her she was on television.”

Mukesh Ambani inks deal with Biyani’s Future Group, pushes a retail war cry

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries has finally inked its much-awaited acquisition of Kishore Biyani’s Future Group for Rs.24,713 crore, reinforcing its own fast growing retail business. Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL), subsidiary of Reliance Industries, will acquire the retail and wholesale and the logistics and warehousing business from the Future Group as ‘going concerns’. The deal mobilises Reliance to acquire Future Retail, including its Big Bazaar and Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd chain stores, including Brand Factory. With Ambani’s stake buy, the pioneer Biyani will gradually bow down from the sector he nurtured for over three decades. Post the deal, Reliance Retail will gain control of over 53 million sq. ft. of retail space and 18 million sq. ft. of warehousing space, more than the world’s 3rd largest retailer Tesco, which has 50.1 million sq. ft. of selling space in the UK. Reliance Retail’s real estate inventory is also expected to scale bigger than all the malls in India’s top eight cities. While the investment from Reliance is expected to bail out debt-ridden Future’s founder, Kishore Biyani, it is also seen to risk Future’s tie-up e-retailing giant Amazon. Analysts’ view that the range, value proposition and growth plans will play an important role in defining key catchment locations and shopping centres across India. With about Rs.30,000 crore in revenue more from the Future Group, Reliance’s sales is expected to rise to nearly Rs.1,93,000 crore ($29.5 billion) to control 30% of India’s organised $89 billion retail market. Legal sources hint that the approval from Competition Commission of India (CCI) will be the longest and most strenuous process in this deal as the anti-trust authority is expected to look into overlaps of the two entity’s retail assets and businesses in common localities.

British Magazine lauds Kerala Health Minister

K K Shailaja, Kerala Health Minister gains more accolades in the latest edition of ‘Prospect’, the British monthly magazine as one of the world’s top thinker for the COVID-19 age. She has been selected from a list of 50 top contenders including Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand; philosopher Cornel West; historian of slavery Olivette Otele amongst others. The magazine has stated, that ‘she was the right woman in the right place’. “When COVID-19 was still a China story in January, she (Shailaja) not only accurately foresaw its inevitable arrival but also fully grasped the implications,” the Magazine piece read. In the past, she has been lauded for Kerala’s efforts in controlling the spread of the pandemic by other internationally renowned media houses such as the BBC, The New York Times and The Guardian.

Amp Energy ropes in ex-Azure CFO

Leading renewable energy company, Amp Energy India appoints veteran Surendra Gupta as Director and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as part of its expansion plans. Gupta has relinquished his role as CFO at Azure Power to succeed Shyam Sharma in his new role with Amp Energy. He is expected to steer the company in its goals as a renewable energy company that serves both C&I and Utility customers through solar, wind, hybrid and storage assets. A Chartered Accountant, he’s had prior experiences in manufacturing, EPC contracting and renewable energy sectors in the domestic and international markets. He brings in a successful track record of Strategic and Business Planning, Procurement and Mergers & Acquisition, Fund Raising (International & Domestic) along with Corporate Financial and Asset Management skills. As CFO at Azure Power, he led the finance function from the startup stage to becoming the first Indian renewable IPP to be listed in the NYSE. When at Azure, he mobilised India’s first $500 million Green Bond, public equity of $135 million through a US IPO and a follow-on offering of another $185 million and over $1.5 billion of project financing. In previous stints, Gupta has worked with the Al Suwaidi Group, Samtel Colour, Fenner India, Birla Yamaha, HCL and Bharat Electronics. He said that Amp is ready for its next level of growth and that he would be contributing to its growth.

Amazon’s Manish Tiwary preps up for a bigger role

Amazon India’s Manish Tiwary, Vice President for Consumer Business has been given an additional mandate for managing Amazon India’s seller services. He has been leading Amazon India’s consumer business, including category management portfolio and brand partnerships across verticals. He now takes on the additional responsibility from Gopal Pillai, Vice President (Seller Services) at Amazon India. Pillai will be returning back to the US (Seattle) after his five-year stint in India since 2015. Likewise, Tiwary, who is in charge of the e-commerce giant’s consumer-facing businesses, is now setting the pace for the bigger role that follows this key rejig at the company as he takes over the seller services portfolio from Pillai. With the expanded role, he will now also oversee seller services on the marketplace, which includes all the programmes that the e-commerce major runs for ensuring that small and medium businesses adopt online commerce. An industry veteran, Tiwary has had 20 years of experience with the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) giant, Hindustan Unilever and had joined Amazon India in 2016, succeeding Samir Kumar who had then decided to migrate back to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters.

Coca-Cola India rejigs leadership roles

T Krishnakumar has been elevated as Chairman of Coca-Cola India Inc. as part of its global restructuring goals. He will help build and strengthen critical and local partnerships in India, while supporting the new operating unit leadership team. The global beverages major has also appointed Sanket Ray as President, India, and Southwest Asia region. Ray, the current Chief Operating Officer (CEO) for Mainland China, will take over the mantle from Krishnakumar, as part of a global leadership rejig. Ray was previously CEO at Coca-Cola Beverages Vietnam Ltd. He also worked with the company-owned bottling unit in India, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB). Coca-Cola’s India and Southwest Asia business units operates across markets in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The moves fall in line with the company’s announcement of leadership appointments worldwide across its new operating units and beverage category teams as part of its broader reorganisation. The company had announced that its 17 business units have been replaced by nine larger operating units which will become effective from January 2021, subject to consultation where required under local laws. Coca-Cola’s nine new operating units and five global category teams will be supported by the newly created Platform Services organisation, replacing current groups and business units, effectively from January 1, 2021. “These changes will help eliminate duplication of resources and enhance the company’s ability to scale new products more quickly,” as per a company statement.

OYO appoints Anuj Tejpal as Global CCO

OYO Hotels & Homes has appointed co-founder Anuj Tejpal, as Global Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Tejpal, a former Global Business Development leader with OYO assumes his new role from September 2020. Reporting directly to Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and Group CEO, OYO Hotels, he will work with regional CEOs and leaders in driving global delivery of revenue for hotels which includes direct demand, OTA, and revenue management. Going forward, all OYO leaders across these teams will have a direct or dotted line (as the case may be) in reporting to Tejpal. His appointment is in line with the company’s efforts to strengthen its revenue and growth organisations while giving an impetus to becoming one of the first to come out of the pandemic. He is among the core leadership team that built OYO. In the last seven years, he has been progressively taking on bigger mandates, and challenging assignments including setting up of OYO’s China business. He has passed on the baton to Gautam Swaroop, the recently appointed CEO for the company’s business in China. Before OYO, Anuj was a Partner at Grassroot, an education company and co-founder of VidyaTimes. com, an e-learning portal. He is an alumnus of IIT BHU Varanasi and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A seasoned OYOpreneur, he has been building OYO grounds up from one hotel in Gurgaon to over 43,000 hotels across 80 countries and 800+ cities.

TBWA shuffles top decks

TBWA India appoints Srijib Mallik and Namrata Nandan as Executive Directors to lead its Delhi and Mumbai operations, respectively. Mallik has over 20 years of advertising and marketing communications experience in both domestic and international roles across India, Singapore and London, working with agencies including W&K, Bates, Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi, CLA and JWT. Mallik will succeed Hari Krishnan, who will take charge of the company’s new growth initiatives in his new role as a business consultant (new ventures). Nandan joins TBWA post-her experience in setting up of her own agency, Conviction Brandworks, bringing in over 25 years of career experience in advertising, spanning local and global networks working with Enterprise, Y&R, Ogilvy, JWT and McCann, where she led the agency’s Mumbai and Bangalore operations.

BEL appoints Raja Sekhar as Director (R&D )

M V Raja Sekhar takes charge as Director (R&D) of Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and moves on from his previous role as Chief Scientist of BEL’s Central Research Laboratory in Bengaluru, and as Officer on Special Duty at BELs corporate office. Raja Sekhar began his BELs journey at their Ghaziabad Unit in 1985. As Chief Scientist, he led a team of around 260 scientists working on diverse technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Drones, Cyber Security, Cloud & Data Analytics, Tactical Communications, Radar Signal & Data Processing.

MD & CEO, Maruti Suzuki appointed as President of SIAM

Kenichi Ayukawa has been appointed as the new President of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the apex body of the Indian automotive industry, succeeding Rajan Wadhera, Senior Advisor, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. Ayukawa has held fort since 2013 as the MD & CEO of Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker. The executive members of SIAM also elected Vipin Sondhi, MD & CEO, Ashok Leyland Ltd, as the Vice President of SIAM. SIAM is a not-for-profit apex body representing all major Indian vehicle and vehicular engine manufacturers and facilitates competitiveness of the Indian Automobile Industry while also working towards reducing the cost of vehicles, increasing productivity and achieving global standards of quality.