Kiran Mazumdar and Poonawalla ally to meet vaccine demand

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Adar Poonawalla have paved a joint strategic road map to strengthen India’s vaccine and biologics development competencies. Biocon Biologics Limited (BBL), a subsidiary of Biocon Limited, has offered a 15% stake in Serum Institute Life Sciences (SILS), a subsidiary of Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. (SSI). Adar Poonawalla, CEO, SII, thus, gets a board member seat at Biocon Biologics. BBL’s stake offer will result in accessing 100 million doses of vaccines per annum for 15 years from SILS’ upcoming facility in Pune. BBL will also receive commercial rights for SILS’ vaccine portfolio for the global markets. Initially, Serum Institute will leverage additional capacity from BBL that includes the first 100 million Covid vaccine doses annually. The SILS-BBL collaboration is expected to boost capacities for SSIs malaria, HPV, pneumococcal vaccines for the world market. The strategic alliance will also develop antibodies targeting infectious diseases like Dengue and HIV. The two companies will enter Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for manufacturing and distribution of the vaccines and antibodies. While the alliance enables BBL to foray and establish itself via a vaccine R&D division in developing vaccines and biologics for communicable diseases, it will also make its cell culture and sterile-fill and finish capacities available for vaccine production. “This alliance will complement the strengths and resources of the two leading players in vaccines and biologics. Our shared vision of building large scale businesses having a global impact makes it a unique and synergistic value creation opportunity,” said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon and Biocon Biologics. Both the companies will be exploring pathways to bridge gaps in vaccine inequity and help meet global vaccine demands.

Ajay Banga

Mastercard’s Ajay Banga to retire

Ajay Banga, Chairman, Mastercard Inc, and noted Indian American corporate leader is all set to retire by the year-end, effective December 31, 2021. The changeover follows Mastercard’s planned board leadership rejigs which has unanimously elected Merit Janow, the lead independent director, to step in as the non-executive independent chair of the Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2022. With Banga’s retirement, Mastercard completes the intentional executive change that was announced in February 2020. Having led a strong and successful decade as the CEO, Banga transitioned to the executive chair post at the beginning of 2021. One of his responsibilities during the transition was that of a counsellor to the CEO for facilitating a smooth transition of key external relationships-including customers and regulators. Banga’s retirement comes almost a year after he stepped down as the CEO of the payment’s processor. Banga took charge of the company just after the 2008-09 financial crisis. During his tenure, Mastercard’s revenue tripled as online shopping gained popularity worldwide.

Sunil Taldar

Airtel rejigs leadership

Bharti Airtel promotes Sunil Taldar, the current DTH (Digital TV) business head as Director (market operations) to oversee Airtel’s nationwide operations. With Ajai Puri, COO, Bharti Airtel (India and SE Asia), slated to retire by the year-end following a successful 17-year stint with the company, Taldar is touted to get further re-designated as the COO with the telecom major. Taldar’s promotion marks Airtel’s on-going leadership rejig as it reorganises its corporate structure bringing the company’s digital and infrastructure assets under the listed parent company while moving its telecom businesses to the newly created arm, Airtel Ltd. Nagananda, Bharti Airtel’s CEO for the “Direct to Customer Channels” business and Ayan Sarkar, distribution business head, would be reporting to Taldar. In other moves, Airtel has named Manu Sood, CEO (Upper North) as the new Category Leader & CEO of the DTH business while Vir Inder Nath has been promoted as category leader & CEO, home broadband operations. The reorganisation is likely to refine the Mittal-led company’s focus on its digital operations in the future. The new structure is viewed as an adjustment to remove the telecom regulatory overhang on Airtel’s digital businesses. Bharti Airtel is also proposing to raise up to Rs.21,000 shares through a rights issue to deepen its 4G network and prepare for the upcoming auction of 5G airwaves while rolling out its NextGen technology in India.

Sabir Sami

KFC global promotes Sami as CEO

Yum! Brands Inc. has promoted Sabir Sami as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KFC’s global division effective January 1, 2022, and will report to David Gibbs, CEO, Yum! Sami who is the current Managing Director (MD) for KFC Asia, succeeds Tony Lowings who will retire as the chief executive by the year-end of 2021, ahead of his retirement date. Sami will continue to serve as the Managing Director, KFC Asia, and along with his new responsibility for driving KFC’s brand strategy and its performance on a global platform. The new position further cements Sami’s 12 years’ association with Yum! In his current role, as MD, KFC Asia, Sami manages operational strategy for all KFC markets and Asia, which is a high-growth region for the company, representing 17 markets across Asia comprising more than 15% of all KFC division restaurants but excludes markets in China. Prior to his latest role, Sami was deputed as the MD for the Middle-East, North Africa and Pakistan. He also served as the General Manager, KFC Canada and Turkey. Prior to joining Yum!, Sami held prime positions with FMCG majors like Procter & Gamble, the Coca-Cola Company and Reckitt Benckiser. KFC India reported 221% system sales growth for India and the neighbouring countries, with a ‘cautiously optimistic’ guidance for the second half of 2021. The Indian business represents less than 1% of global system sales for KFC and Pizza Hut. KFC is Yum!’s largest brand with a footprint of more than 25,000 restaurants adding nearly $4 billion in system sales from digital channels, growing its digital business to about $10 billion in 2020.

T Krishnakumar

Review panel Reliance ropes in former Coca-Cola India chairperson

T Krishnakumar, former chairperson of Coca-Cola India has been roped in by Reliance Industries (RIL) to leverage the Group’s retail and grocery sector, especially in the e-commerce space with JioMart. Industry insiders have indicated that Reliance has also onboarded five other former Coca-Cola executives who had quit the beverage major last year following a global restructuring. Krishnakumar’s long 17 years’ inning with Coca-Cola ended in March 2021. He was elevated as the Chairperson of Coca-Cola India last September. Based out of Bengaluru, Krishnakumar may become the prime lieutenant in paving Mukesh Ambani’s inroads into the packaged food and beverages segment as a separate business unit. Reliance Retail has been ramping up a new team in the food and beverage sector, especially its own private labels. It is expected that onboarding Krishnakumar will contribute to bolstering Reliance’s own product portfolio labels such as Snac tac noodles and Yeah! colas that compete with Nestle, Coca-Cola and Pepsico. The new team at Reliance is exploring synergies to revive talks between Coca-Cola’s bottling partner Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) for a possible acquisition which was put on the back burner following the pandemic outbreak. Speculations were on that Reliance would be keen only on a scale buyout of the entire operations which includes both HCCB and the independent bottlers.

Debanjali Sengupta

Debanjali Sengupta promoted as Shell Lubricant Country Head

Shell India promotes Debanjali Sengupta as Country Head, Shell Lubricants India, succeeding Raman Ojha, who has moved on to take over as Vice President - Global Head (Construction and Roads). With over 20 years of experience, Debanjali is a seasoned leader and an expert across industries, business cycles and markets. Her focus as the Country Head will be to steer Shell Lubricants in adopting sustainable pathways and supporting India’s ongoing energy transitions. A Shell old-hand, Debanjali began her career with Shell India in 2005 as part of the New Market Entry team and has since aced multiple global and local assignments. She was chosen to the company’s elitist Group Strategy team in London. She has donned multiple hats in her roles as the Head of Sales & Operations at Shell India, Retail-Global Strategy, as a manager of non-fuels business and as global business head of its Vehicle Care at Shell Mobility. She is also a nominated Director with the Punjab Renewable Energy Systems, overseeing the low carbon mandate practised by Shell in India. Prior to joining Shell, Debanjali has had a successful stint with Tata Motors in its domestic and international businesses. A PG in Economics, she is an alumna of the IIM-Kolkata.

C K Ranganathan

CavinKare CMD takes charge as President, AIMA

C K Ranganathan, CMD, CavinKare, takes charge as President of the All-India Management Association (AIMA) replacing Harsh Pati Singhania, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, J K Paper. He will lead the AIMA for a duration of one year until the next National Management Convention scheduled for September 2022. Other prominent new AIMA leadership appointees include Shrinivas Dempo, Group Chairperson, Dempo Group of Industries as Senior Vice President and Nikhil Sawhney, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Triveni Turbines as AIMA Vice President. P Dwarkanath, former chairperson, GSK Consumer Healthcare Ltd. has taken over as Treasurer as he re-joins AIMA’s leadership team. Ranganathan’s leadership is expected to make AIMA’s services and new initiatives more technology-driven, especially for face recognition tools for admission and recruitment testing services, also remote proctored semester examination for educational institutes. Ranganathan hoped that AIMA would be one of the catalysts in the next 12 months in enabling the expected upturn in economic activity. He would priorities steering AIMA’s digitalisation as well as initiate measures in delivering its services to students, executives, enterprises and academics in the hybrid model. AIMA is the national apex body of the management profession in India and works closely with industry, government, academia and students to further the management profession in India.

Ramanan Ramanathan

NITI Aayog’s Ramanathan joins IIM-B’s incubation arm

Ramanan Ramanathan, the First Mission Director of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Additional Secretary at NITI Aayog joins NSRCEL-the incubation arm of IIM-B as a Fellow. His expertise and knowledge are seen as an enabler for NSRCEL startups and teams in scaling new heights. NSRCEL has been successfully nurturing and supporting emerging entrepreneurs through various programmes in India’s startup ecosystem. Ramanathan will support young and dynamic minds in achieving their entrepreneurial dreams. As the Mission Director of AIM, Ramanan was instrumental in executing nationwide innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives such as over 10k Atal Tinkering Labs schools with above 8700 currently operational in more than 650 districts. These give access to four million students to innovative technologies like 3D printers, robotics, IoT, electronics and do-it-yourself kits. He was responsible for one of the largest Mentors of Change networks with over 5000+ mentors nationwide in mentoring school students and startups. Ramanathan began his inning at TCS in 1981. An alumni of IIT Mumbai and Harvard Business School (HBS AMP187), he was awarded the 2019 National Digitalist of the year by SAP-MINT, the 2020 Outstanding National Public Service Award by Confederation of MSME. He is a recipient of Businessworld India’s – most 'Valuable CEO awards', Asia CMO Asia’s Outstanding CEO award, the Rajiv Gandhi Shiromani and Indira Gandhi Sadhbhavana award. He is a Lifetime Chair of HBS AMP187, Board member of Israel India Innovation forum, eSamshiksa, Unnati GOI initiatives, Chair of New Zealand Trade Enterprises Beachheads, Indo US Technology Trade forum (IUSSTF), Indo US AI Committee, and former member of the Tata Group Innovation Forum.

M S Dhoni and Mahindra join NCC review panel

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, iconic cricketer and Anand Mahindra, Group Chairperson, Mahindra & Mahindra have been enlisted in a 15-member panel constituted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for a comprehensive review of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) in making it more relevant in changing times. Dhoni’s inclusion comes days after he was appointed as a mentor for India’s T20 cricket World Cup team. The former India captain for world-class cricket is a Lieutenant Colonel (Honorary) in the Indian Army. Mahindra and Dhoni join the illustrious NCC review committee led by former lawmaker Baijayant Panda and includes Col. (Retd.) Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore; Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Rajya Sabha member; Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor in the Finance Ministry and Najma Akhtar, Vice Chancellor at Jamia Millia Islamia. The committee will propose measures for beneficial engagement of NCC cadets for their betterment and that of the organisation as a whole. The idea would also be to recommend best practices of similar international youth organisations for inclusion in the NCC curriculum. The other panellists include Vasudha Kamat, former Vice Chancellor of SNDT Women’s University; Mukul Kanitkar, National Organising Secretary of Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal, Maj. Gen. (retd.) Alok Raj; Rituraj Sinha, Managing Director, SIS India Ltd. and Anand Shah, CEO, Databook.