upGrad appoints former Byju’s exec Arjun Mohan as first India CEO

Professional education startup upGrad has appointed Arjun Mohan, the former chief business officer (CBO) at ed-tech firm Byju’s, as the CEO of its India operations.

The position of India CEO was unoccupied since the inception of the company in January 2015, upGrad said in a statement. Mohan will be responsible to drive the business growth for the edtech major, it added.

upGrad was founded by Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, Ravijot Chugh and Ronnie Screwvala. 

Its target customers are professionals looking for online courses in entrepreneurship, digital marketing, data analytics and product management. The company has witnessed a 50% spike in demand for its courses as the country-wide Covid-19 lockdown is underway, it said.

"We have only scratched the surface of this large addressable market and with Arjun (Mohan) coming on board, I am certain that we will push towards further cementing our leadership position in the online higher education market,” Kumar said.

Mohan has over 17 years of work experience. Before his role as CBO at Byju’s, he was the company’s vice president for marketing. Before that, he drove the sales and operations team at Titan Industries. Mohan has also worked with Tata Motors, Tata Realty And Infrastructure as well as Sir Dorabji Tata and Allied Trusts. He started his career as a Tata Administrative Services manager, after graduating from IIM Kozhikode with a gold medal.