PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

Reliance ropes in Amul’s Sodhi, ex-MD GCMMF

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has onboarded R S Sodhi, former MD of the Gujarat Cooper- ative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), manufacturers of the Amul brands of products. Reliance’s inducting Sodhi is seen as RIL’s bid to expand its grocery business under Isha Ambani’s Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL). Sodhi has been inducted in an advisory role and is expected to strengthen Reliance’s fresh fruit and vegetables vertical, and further integrate it with its grocery business. Sodhi’s association with farmers and expertise in the dairy-cooperative model in India is expected to steer RIL’s bid to integrate farmers across the fruits, and vegetable supply chains. Sodhi is also the president of the Indian Dairy Association, the country’s governing body for the dairy sector. RILs’ focus would be to enhance its brand worth, strengthening its presence in the fruits and vegetables categories and other consumer-centric brands. Market watchers have hinted that with Sodhi on board, RIL might revive its plans to re-enter the diary segment, which it had relinquished al- most a decade ago to Heritage Foods. With Sodhi’s expertise, RIL hopes to build an integrated FMCG company covering all product categories with a strong emphasis on backend sourcing. Sodhi will bring in his experiences gained with GCMMF’s iconic Amul brand, having worked with Dr. Verghese Kurien, the father of India’s dairy cooperative movement. Under Sodhi’s managerial prowess, Amul launched over 200 new products. During his tenure, he encouraged farmers to increase milk procure- ment for Amul by 171% within a decade, to 250 lakhs litres daily (2020-21) from 91 lakhs litres daily (2009-10) and was instrumental in raking in a 390% increase in GCMMF’s turnover.

Das receives the ‘Governor of the Year’ honour

Shaktikanta Das

Shaktikanta Das has been honoured with the ‘Governor of the Year,’ award by Central Banking, a financial publisher, which specializes in public policy and financial markets, with emphasis on central banks, and international financial institutions. Das has been recognized for handling difficulties since he took over as the RBI Governor. It included managing the Covid-19 pandemic and also holding the fort during the most trying phases of the pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. The war had posed an inflationary impact, and Covid concerns led to a potential contagion risk, which was linked to public sector bank loans. Despite the challenges, Das’s leadership maintained stability in India’s financial sector. The publication observed that India’s GDP rose around 90% in the last 10 years, and GDP per capita is at 70%, resulting in the average Indian’s income at $2,400 annually, which is $1,000 higher than in 2010. Despite widespread poverty, it has taken a dip from 55% to 16% in 15 years as per the United Nations multidimensional metric. Das’s revised bankruptcy code and liquidity rules for non-banks have driven improvements in the banking sector, reducing NPAs at public-sector banks from 15% in 2018 to 6.5% in September 2022. During Covid, Das sustained a communicative approach, allowed direct press briefings, enabling sound a public awareness campaign. Market watchers laud him for preventing chaotic market conditions, and at times manoeuvring arguable situations with the government.

TCS’s Gopinathan steps down, Krithivasan named CEO-designate

Rajesh Gopinathan

Rajesh Gopinathan has stepped down from his role as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), within a year of his second 5-year term with the IT major. His resignation is with effect from September 15, 2023. At 52 years, Gopinathan, said that he has resigned for the first time and that he has not written a resume since his campus days, some 27 years ago, joining Tata Industries. He has had a 22 years’ innings with TCS alone, and not divulged his future plans post his TCS exit. TCS has handed over the baton to K. Krithivasan (Krithi), as the new CEO designate, effective March 16, 2023. Krithi is TCS’s current President and Global Head of the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) business group. Krithi is expected to liaise with Gopinathan on the leadership role transfer until the next financial year. According to TCS, Krithi will take over as the MD and CEO in the next financial year, subject to shareholder approval, and the succession date will be announced accordingly. Gopinathan, one of TCS’s youngest CEOs, said, “It’s an odd day today but I am happy to announce that I am stepping down after 22 years with TCS. I can’t tell you how happy and light I feel.” News of Gopinathan’s departure surprised the Indian IT diaspora as he had been re-appointed for a five-year term, ending February 2027. Gopinathan, at 52 years, has relinquished his 22 years of partnership with TCS, particularly as its CEO in the past six years. Gopinathan succeeded N Chandrasekaran as TCS’s CEO. Chandrasekaran had hand-picked Gopinathan as the CFO in 2013, who steered on and became the CEO, which he has now forfeited. TCS has implied that the revenue element and monotony in the role, including organisational restructuring, led to Gobinathan’s resignation.

Simantini Ghosh is VP-Content with Carat’s Indian arm

Simantini Ghosh

Simantini Ghosh joins as Vice President– Content, at Carat India, which is one of the top global media agencies and has been consistently ranked the #1 media agency as per Forrester’s ranking parameters. Simantini held the position of Region Head–South of Content, at Wavemaker, before her new role. She has been associated with Wavemaker for 3+ years and with Essence for five-and-a-half years and has finally quit GroupM, relinquishing her almost 9 years of association with the group. She announced her new role with Carat India via LinkedIn, ending her chapter with Wavemaker, as Business Head-South of Content, for 1.5 years starting March 2020, and was then promoted as Region Head-South of Content in August 2021. She has been associated with Radio City India for 2.5 years in a previous stint, joining as a Man- agement Trainee-Branded Content in April 2012 and then getting promoted as Key Account Manager-Branded Content in May 2013. She kick-started her career as a Marketing Intern with Radio Mirchi in 2011.

Mumbai-born Kankiwali appointed CEO of UK’s John Lewis

Nish Kankiwala

Britain’s John Lewis Partnership has appointed Mumbai-born Nish Kankiwala as its new chief executive officer (CEO). The role marks John Lewis creating its first-ever CEO designation, a position that is expected to steer profitability. The retail chain is led by chairman Sharon White, and the group operates John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets. Nish Kankiwala is a former Hovis bread/Bakery and Burger King executive, who is currently a non-executive director at the John Lewis Partnership. Nish Kankiwala has been a non-executive director at John Lewis for the past two years, and Kankiwala’s appoint- ment has led to a reshuffle of its leadership team. Under the new structure, Naomi Simcock, Retail Director John Lewis, and six other executive directors will report to Kankiwala, who in turn will report to Sharon White. Nish joined the John Lewis board in 2021 and has developed an understanding of the retail chain’s partnership model and has been a part of its transformation journey. The Mumbai-born Kankiwala moved to the UK, was schooled in East London, and pursued chemical engineering at the University College London. He kick-started his career as a graduate trainee with Unilever, across the Netherlands, France, and the US. In previous stints, Kankiwala was President of PepsiCo’s soft drinks business in Europe and Africa and President of Burger King’s international business. He turned around the bread brand Hovis in 2014 and became the company’s chief executive before calling it quits in 2022.

Infosys’ loss is Mahindra’s gain

Mohit Joshi

Mohit Joshi succeeds Tech Mahindra’s C P Gurnani, as the company’s MD & CEO, after calling it quits as the President of Infosys, relinquishing 22 years of his long-standing association with Infosys. His exit comes within five months of Ravi Kumar quitting Infosys to lead Cognizant as its CEO. Joshi’s five-year tenure is with effect from December 20, 2023, to December 18, 2028. Joshi’s selection encompasses a robust process during which the Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC) evaluated several internal and external candidates. Joshi triumphed on the base of his digital transformation experiences and having handled new technologies and large deals with his previous employers, which were seen as compatible with Tech Mahindra’s strategies. Joshi brings over two decades of experience in the enterprise technology software and consulting domains, having worked for iconic corporates, the likes of Infosys, ANZ Grindlays, and ABN Amro Bank. At Infosys, Joshi led the Global financial services, healthcare, and software businesses, including the popular banking platform, Finacle, and was involved in the firm’s AI/automation portfolio. He is a non-executive director at Aviva, the Vice Chairperson of the Economic Growth Board of the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) and was chosen as the Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2014. He is an alumnus of the Delhi Public School, RK Puram, St Stephen’s College, Delhi University, and the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. He completed the ‘Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century Program’, at Harvard Kennedy School in 2019, and worked globally across geographies, including Asia, the US, and Europe.

Bosch Group elevates Guruprasad Mudlapur as President

Guruprasad Mudlapur

Guruprasad Mudlapur takes charge as the President of Bosch Group in India and as Managing Director (MD) of Bosch Limited, with effect from July 1, 2023. He will continue to be the Chief Technology Officer (CTO)for Bosch Limited and is expected to steer strategic growth and business performance. Mudlapur succeeds Soumitra Bhattacharya who will retire from Bosch India after 28 years of innings across various capacities on June 30, 2023. Before his promotion to the new role, Mudlapur was the Joint MD of Bosch Limited. In other previous roles, he was the Regional President and Managing Director of Bosch Automotive Electronics Private Limited. Mudlapur has been associated with Bosch for 15+ years since August 2008 and held multiple positions across engineering and business management domains. He is well-versed in driving innovative technology initiatives and influencing key business dynamics. Before Bosch, he had a 14+ years stint with NXP Semiconductors at their Singapore and Netherlands units. He is an engineering graduate from the in electronics from the B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore, and an alum of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB).

Niranjan Gupta promoted as CEO of Hero MotoCorp

Niranjan Gupta

Niranjan Gupta takes over as the new CEO of Hero MotoCorp, effective from May 1, 2023. He has been promoted from his current role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and head of strategy and M&A, as part of the company’s succession planning process. In his six years stint with the company, Gupta has driven Hero MotoCorp’s revenue generation and making sensible capital allocations. With Gupta stepping into the CEO’s role, Pawan Munjal, the current CEO, and the chairman will continue as the executive chairman and whole-time board director. Gupta is expected to continue realising Hero MotoCorp’s full potential, delivering long-term growth, and adding value to their stakeholders. Gupta’s journey with Hero MotoCorp marks forging numerous business partnerships with global brands, including the ones with Harley Davidson and the US-based Zero Motorcycles. His interventions led the company to strike a Rs 585 crore deal with Zero Motorcycles. Gupta brings 25 years of working experience gained across finance, mergers and acquisitions, metals and mining, supply chain, consumer goods, and automobiles. His roles have mobilised finance, profit and loss balance sheet management, building financial models for startups and governance, keeping tow of the supply chain, and external market forces. His business acumen, expertise in finance, and establishing processes, helped him to navigate across diverse roles in a competitive and ever-evolving business environment. He is also a director on the board of HMC MM Auto Private Limited, Ather Energy, and HMCL Colombia. Before joining Hero MotoCorp, Gupta had a three-year stint with Vedanta Limited and about 20 years with Unilever’s global deputations. He was the Global Finance Director of the Household care and Hair category with Unilever, London, and served as Procurement Head of Unilever, South Asia. Gupta is a qualified chartered accountant, cost accountant, and a company secretary.

Jayanti Chauhan agrees to head Bisleri International

Jayanti Chauhan

Jayanti Chauhan will finally take the reins of Bisleri International and steer her father and Chairper- son, Ramesh Chauhan’s legacy with the bottled water company. The reluctant Jayanti decided to take on the baton from her father as impending talks between Tata Consumer Products Ltd (TCPL) and Bisleri failed, with TCPL withdrawing from the acquisition process. Jayanti is currently the vice chairperson of the company and will be working with its professional management team headed by Angelo George. TCPL had reportedly begun talking to the Chauhans some two years ago for a possible buy-out of the Rs 7000 crore bottled water business, which has eventually been called off. This brings Jayanti, the scion to the forefront of her father’s brand legacy. Jayanti is not new to the business as she has been involved periodically over the years, managing the Vedika brand, under Bisleri’s portfolio. She also handles verticals like digital marketing, advertising, and communication development. Jayanti embarked on her journey with Bisleri when she was 24 years old under her father’s mentorship. She is a fashion designer from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), Los Angeles, and is specialised in product development. She learnt styling at the Istituto Marangoni Milano and holds certifications in Fashion Styling and Photography from the London College of Fashion. Chauhan was an intern at various leading fashion firms and also holds a degree in Arabic from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.