CEO Dutta resigns, Indigo appoints KLM veteran

InterGlobe Aviation Limited (IndiGo) has appointed former KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) veteran, Pieter Elbers as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), succeeding Ronojoy Dutta, slated to retire on September 30, 2022. Elber’s appointment is subject to regulatory approvals and will be effective from October 1, 2022, as Dutta announced his retirement, having successfully guided the airline during the turbulent Covid phases. Elbers has previously served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of KLM and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Air France – KLM Group. Elbers began his KLM career in 1992 at their Schiphol hub and has held several managerial positions in The Netherlands and across global destinations in Japan, Greece, and Italy. He became KLM’s Senior Vice President of Network & Alliances before being the CEO in 2011. Born in Schiedam, The Netherlands, he has a bachelor’s degree in Logistics Management and a Master’s degree in Business Economics. Elber’s appointment is a strategic haul as Air France-KLM and IndiGo have recently implemented a codeshare agreement allowing each airline to sell seats on the other’s flights. The agreement signed in December 2021, enables Air France and KLM to offer its passengers access to 30 new Indian cities and will sell seats, on its distribution system, for IndiGo flights across 30 domestic routes.

Jawed Zia

Cadila ropes in veteran Zia as CEO

Pharmaceutical stalwart, Jawed Zia, joins as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ahmedabad-based Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited’s Domestic Prescription Business. With almost 35 years of industry experience, Zia brings his deep-dive knowledge in building and managing businesses in the healthcare sector. A strategic thinker, Zia kick-started his pharma journey in 1987 as a Management Trainee with Ciba Geigy in Dublin, Ireland. As part of his illustrious career graph, he has since worked up the corporate ladder across senior roles and geographies with diverse pharmaceutical companies. He has dedicated considerable years of his career to Novartis, and his last position was that of Country President, India. At Novartis, he held responsibilities across market research, brand management, marketing, and other functions in Ireland, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, and India. His overall contributions include roles in Rx (prescription) Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, Medical Devices, and Instrumentations. He has also had previous stints with Alcon, a Novartis arm, and as Vice President, Abbot, Established Pharmaceuticals, India, before joining as the Vice Chairman of healthcare startup Rivaara Holdings. A graduate of Clinical Pharmacology from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, Zia holds a business administration qualification from Trinity College, Dublin.

Vyankatesh Kulkarni

Mercedes-Benz India promotes Vyankatesh Kulkarni

Luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz has onboarded Vyankatesh Kulkarni as the Executive Director and Head of Operations, India, effective June 1, 2022. Kulkarni replaces Piyush Arora, who stepped down in March 2022 to join as Managing Director, Škoda Auto Volkswagen India. Tech-savvy Kulkarni is expected to steer production and procurement-related functions at Mercedes-Benz India and will play a crucial role in transforming the automobile major’s manufacturing ecosystem in its transitional journey into electrification and technology-driven ‘Smart Manufacturing’ and Industry 4.0 practices. Kulkarni brings in two decades of rich experience in technology, planning, manufacturing operations, supply chain, and digitisation, having successfully managed several important global projects. Kulkarni began his career with Mercedes in 2008 and joined the Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Pvt. Ltd., and set up the ‘International Tech-Hub for Manufacturing and Supply Chain.’ Before joining Mercedes, he had meaningful stints with domestic auto giants - Maruti Suzuki India and TATA Motors-Technologies. Armed with a Mechanical Engineering Degree, he pursued Data Science at IIM, Lucknow.

Cyrus Poonawalla

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School honours Cyrus Poonawalla

Cyrus S. Poonawalla, Chairman, Serum Institute of India (SII), has been felicitated by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for his outstanding work and lifelong contribution to developing and delivering affordable vaccines and contributing to India’s biosciences sector. Poonawalla received the honour at the institute’s convocation ceremony held in May 2022. He received the Bloomberg School’s Dean’s Medal, established by Dean Emeritus D.A. Henderson, reserved for outstanding public health researchers and practitioners showcasing exceptional leadership in improving public health. Since 1966, the Poonawalla-founded SII has pioneered vaccine development, particularly paediatric vaccines. Cyrus Poonawalla’s foresight has helped SII achieve global leadership in manufacturing four billion doses annually and channelises vaccines via its partnership with UNICEF and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO). SII’s measles vaccine helped prevent 22 million deaths as part of UNICEF and PAHO between 1990 to 2016. SII’s innovative approach and business scaling focus on low-cost access, which has enabled the company to protect more than two-thirds of the global infant population, saving an estimated 30 million lives. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Poonawalla’s leadership forged SII’s collaboration with Oxford University, Astra Zeneca, Novavax, and several other partners to manufacture and distribute millions of doses of the coronavirus vaccine in India and globally.

Sameer Khetarpal

Jubilant ropes in Amazon’s Khetarpal

Jubilant FoodWorks Limited (JFL) has roped in Amazon’s Sameer Khetarpal as CEO & Managing Director, effective September 5, 2022, succeeding Pratik Pota. His five-year tenure with JFL, which runs the Domino’s Pizza and Dunkin’ brands in India, is expected to benefit from Khetarpal’s leadership and strengths in building digital-first businesses. Khetarpal’s 25 years of industry experience are dotted with senior leadership roles across diverse sectors, including e-commerce and management consulting. Before joining Jubilant, he was Director, Category Management, Amazon. He has masterminded, conceptualised, launched, and scaled several business verticals at Amazon, including Amazon Fresh, Amazon Food, and Amazon Pharmacy. Before Amazon, he was a partner at McKinsey and Company. He is seen as a robust, dynamic, and value-driven leader with a track record of delivering consistently high-quality performance across consumer business platforms. Khetarpal has also had previous stints with GE Capital and Hindustan Unilever Ltd. An alumnus of the Indian School of Business (ISB), he holds an MS (Chemical Engineering) degree from Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas.

Ramdas Baliga

Baliga elevated as MD, Toshiba Software India

Ramdas Baliga takes over as Managing Director of Toshiba Software India Pvt Ltd TSIP, the software arm of the Toshiba Group, succeeding Takashi Ishikawa, who helmed TSIP for the past four years. Baliga’s spent 18 years of his almost 27 years of career experience within Toshiba, which showcased his various leadership positions and contributions in designing and developing IT technologies and solutions for Toshiba in India and globally. Under his aegis, Toshiba Software’s development centres in Bengaluru and Pune developed as centres of operational excellence. He holds a Master of Technology (MTech) degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai and is an alumnus of the Pune Institute of Computer Technology. He believes in digital transformation at an accelerated pace and aims to empower digital agility across and beyond Toshiba. Before joining Toshiba, he had an eight-year stint with Sasken Technologies Limited.

A. Manimekhalai

Manimekhalai joins Union Bank as MD & CEO

Taking over as MD & CEO of Union Bank of India (UBI), A. Manimekhalai replaces Rajkiran Rai G, who retired on May 31 after a five-year stint. In her new role, Manimekhalai becomes UBI’s first woman MD for three years with an extendable tenure of two years or until her retirement date of March 2026. A seasoned banker, she was the Executive Director at Canara Bank before joining UBI and brings in three decades of her banking repertoire. At Canara Bank, she oversaw strategic planning, inspection, marketing, financial inclusion, credit, and related matters and was responsible for state-level and regional rural bank functionalities. She was instrumental in impacting the successful amalgamation of Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank. She is a director on the Board of five other companies, including Canbank Factors Ltd., Canbank Computer Services Ltd., Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Co. Ltd., General Insurance Corporation of India, India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd., and as a trustee with the Canara Robeco Asset Management Co. Before her stint with Canara Bank, she was General Manager of Vijaya Bank and worked her way up within the bank, having joined as an Officer in 1988. Manimekhalai is a Master of Business Administration (Marketing) from Bangalore University and has a Diploma in Human Resource Management from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai. She is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB) and has benefitted from several executive development programmes at leading institutes countrywide.

Anindita Das Veluri

Adobe India onboards Anindita Das Veluri

Anindita Das Veluri takes over as Head of Marketing for Adobe India and will report to Duncan Egan, Marketing Vice President, Adobe Asia Pacific (APAC). Anindita replaces Sunder Madakshira, who quit the company and has joined as CEO of Rezolve and will lead Adobe’s marketing strategy across the Indian market. She is expected to share Adobe’s marketing journey with brands in India and enable their digital transformation strategies.

She has held various leadership roles across sales and marketing in a career spanning over two decades. She has a strong track record of working across verticals in marketing, technology, business, and creativity. Before joining Adobe, Anindita was with Deloitte, where she built Adobe’s alliance and scaled the company’s business in India. Before Deloitte, she had a successful stint with Adobe’s practice at IBM and has been instrumental in expanding Adobe’s footprint across client segments. She has also been involved in the “marketing-as-a-service” model for IBM Services and developed its digital marketing services practice for solution selling across industry sectors. Anindita holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management from the Times School of Marketing in New Delhi and is a Commerce Graduate in Commerce from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore.

Preeti Futnani

Sanofi India appoints Preeti Futnani as GM, Vaccines

Sanofi India has appointed Preeti Futnani as the General Manager, Vaccines and succeeds Annapurna Das, who is promoted as the Head of Vaccines, Asia. The new role transitions from her previous role as the Franchise Head for Dupixent Dermatology, as part of Sanofi’s Greater Gulf MCO (a cluster of six countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait). Preeti has over two decades of experience in delivering growth and transformation across several therapeutic and functional areas within the healthcare domain, including primary, specialty care, medical technology, and finance. Her global experience is seen as an asset that would sharpen Sanofi India’s focus on increasing vaccine coverage rates, drive the growth of its existing portfolio and accelerate the development of innovative vaccines in the country. Preeti began her Sanofi journey some six years ago in Specialty Care Gulf and before that, she has played significant roles in Novartis-Marketing and Commercial operations across Switzerland, the UK, and India. She has held leadership roles in marketing, sales, and management across several geographies, from mature markets in the UK and the EU to emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East. She is an alumna of the Indian School of Business (ISB) and The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.