Flipkart hires former Sony Pictures executive as HR head

Walmart-owned homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart has appointed former Sony Pictures executive Smriti Krishna Singh as its new chief human resources officer, filling a position that has been vacant for nearly 18 months.

Singh will join India’s largest e-commerce company in the first week of December, a Flipkart spokesperson told TechCircle via email.

In an email sent to Flipkart employees on Tuesday, Flipkart chief executive officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy said that Singh would hold “overall responsibility of our people, talent, rewards and L&D (learning and development) charter”. TechCircle has accessed a copy of this e-mail. 

Singh will report to Krishnamurthy, who added that she has a “successful track record of leading change, innovation and developing human capital strategies to improve business outcomes…”

Apart from working with the Indian unit of Sony Pictures, Singh has previously occupied positions at printing major Xerox India, American multinational firm GE Healthcare, professional services firm Genpact and US-based media conglomerate NBC Universal.

She has a degree in management from International Management Institute-Delhi and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi.

Singh will occupy a position that has been vacant since May last year when chief operating officer Nitin Seth had quit the firm.

Seth had joined Flipkart as chief people officer in February 2016.

He had replaced Mekin Maheshwari, one of the highest-paid executives at Flipkart at the time. Seth became COO in January last year after a major reshuffle of the top management when Krishnamurthy, a former Tiger Global executive, was appointed CEO. 

The latest development comes on the heels of Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal’s abrupt resignation as group chief executive officer last week following an independent probe into allegations of “serious personal misconduct”. Bansal has denied the allegations.

Days after Bansal’s exit, Walmart said that it will be merging the functions of Flipkart’s two fashion arms—Myntra and Jabong, even though the brands will continue to operate separately for customers.

Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan will continue heading the fashion e-tailer 

Also, several people in the know had told TechCircle that Walmart was undertaking a round of layoffs at Jabong. About 200 of Jabong’s 700 employees have been asked to leave the company, the people said on the condition of anonymity. 

Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart was closed in August. The retailer had announced its decision to buy 77% of the company for $16 billion in May.