Spotlight: CXO movement this week (Sept 23-Sept 29)  

The week (September 23-29, 2023) was buzzing with several CXO movements in the tech industry with some of the major appointments in key business positions. IT firms like Cognizant, Intel, Microsoft and Hexaware, among others, made important new appointments, while non-tech firms like Radico Khaitan and Essar also appointed new executives to lead their tech affairs. Movements also happened in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Here’s the roundup: 

Cognizant appoints Wipro veteran Jatin Dalal as CFO 

Wipro veteran Jatin Dalal has been appointed as the next chief financial officer (CFO) of Cognizant, the company said on Thursday. Dalal's succeeds Jan Siegmund, who intends to retire in early 2024. Dalal will report to Ravi Kumar S, Cognizant's Chief Executive Officer, and oversee, among other responsibilities, Cognizant's worldwide financial planning and analysis, accounting and controllership, tax, treasury and internal audit, corporate development, investor relations and enterprise risk management functions. Dalal has been with Wipro for over two decades, and resigned from the Bengaluru-based IT firm only last week, and his last day at the company is November 30. Previously, he was CFO of Wipro's Global IT Business from 2011 to 2015 and also assumed additional responsibilities as President beginning in December 2019.  (Read more)

Gokul Subramaniam elevated as Intel India President 

Chipmaker Intel has elevated Gokul Subramaniam to the post of Intel India President. He will be responsible for the company’s overall engineering and design operations in the country. Subramaniam has been working with Intel for over 11 years and is currently vice president of client computing group (CCG) and general manager of client platforms and systems. He will be assuming the India president role in addition to leading client platforms and systems in CCG. Santhosh Viswanathan, vice president and managing director-sales, marketing and communications group (SMG) will continue to lead the chipmaker’s overall business in India. Subramaniam is an alumnus of the University of Madras and the University of Texas. Before joining Intel in 2012, Subramaniam worked with Texas Instruments. (Read more)

Radico Khaitan appoints Abhishek Kumar Singh as VP of IT 

Radico Khaitan, a player in the consumer goods industry, has announced the appointment of Abhishek Kumar Singh as its Vice President of Information Technology. Singh, with over 20 years of experience in the consumer goods sector, Singh is set to spearhead the IT function from the company's headquarters in New Delhi, reporting to Dilip Kumar Banthiya, the Chief Financial Officer. Earlier, Singh served as the Assistant Vice President of Information Technology at Jubilant FoodWorks. Singh holds a Master of Computer Applications degree from Dr. B.A.M University, Aurangabad and a diploma in advanced computing from CDAC, ACTS, New Delhi. (Read more)

Ex-Google, Robinhood exec joins Microsoft as corporate VP 

Aparna Chennapragada joins Microsoft as the corporate vice president where she will be working on generative media artificial intelligence products and technology. Chennapragada posted on the professional networking website LinkedIn about the new job update. She has worked with companies like Robinhood, Google, Akamai, and Oracle, in the past. In her last role, she was the chief product officer of the American stock trading platform Robinhood, a post where she served for a little over a year. Further, Chennapragada is also a board member of eBay. She has been an active investor and last year she invested in online taxation and fintech software provider Clear Tax. (Read more)

BSE’s CISO, chief of special projects step down 

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) announced on September 26 that the chief information security officer Shivkumar Pandey has tendered his resignation from the post, effective December 4. He is stepping down to pursue another opportunity. Along with Pandey, the chief of special projects, Nayan Mehta has also decided to quit owing to personal and health reasons. His resignation will be effective closing hours of October 12. Also, Deepak Goel was appointed as the CFO, a role he has been serving since September. Pandey served as the Group CISO at BSE for over seven years from his appointment in April 2016. Before BSE, he was the CISO at the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). An alumna of Mumbai University, Pandey has worked at organisations like Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, Tata AIG, and Future Generali India. (Read more)

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin names former Amazon executive as its new CEO 

Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, is set to see a change in leadership at the end of this year. Bob Smith, the current CEO, will step down from his role, and he will be succeeded by former Amazon executive Dave Limp, as per Reuters report. Limp, served as senior vice president at Amazon for more than a decade and was responsible for managing notable consumer devices like Echo products. However, in August, he announced his retirement as the division he led struggled to generate revenue and had to reduce its workforce. Smith mentioned his commitment to stay with the company until January 2nd to ensure a smooth transition with the incoming CEO. (Read more)

Indium Software appoints Jagannath Bharadwaj as its new Chief Operating Officer 

Indium Software, a digital engineering services company, has announced the appointment of Jagannath Bharadwaj as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO). He has previously worked at Ciklum, a global product engineering and digital services company, where he played a pivotal role in incubating, nurturing, and growing the company's India delivery centers. Prior to that Bharadwaj spent over two decades at IT services major Cognizant, where he held various delivery management and market-facing leadership positions. In his new role as COO at Indium Software, Bharadwaj will take charge of the Global Delivery organisation and Talent Acquisition. (Read more)

Hexaware appoints Anton Tomchenko to head Digital, Software Services biz 

IT services firm Hexaware on Monday announced the appointment of Anton Tomchenko as its Chief Revenue and Solutions Officer for Digital and Software Services. This department at Hexaware is at the forefront of enterprise digital transformation. They offer a synergistic mix of strategy, experience design, and advanced product engineering to redefine the benchmarks for digital business. Tomchenko has over two decades of experience in technology, engineering, and consulting. Prior to joining Hexaware, He has worked with software engineering firm EPAM Systems in multiple roles for nearly two decades including C-track executive, co-head of business, head of PE/VC product and technology M&A services and as a senior software engineer at Google. (Read more)

Veeam appoints Beni Sia as general manager and SVP for APJ 

Cybersecurity firm Veeam Software has appointed Beni Sia as the new general manager and senior vice president of Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ). In this role, Sia would be responsible for the company’s business operations and growth strategy across the region. Sia comes with over 20 years of experience in the IT industry and has worked with customers and partners across the APJ region. In his last role, he was the vice president of Southeast Asia and Korea at Veeam, and led growth and expansion in 12 markets. He has also worked at companies like Broadcom, Brocade, Juniper Networks, and Datacraft. An alumnus of the University of Toronto, Sia is also currently serving as an independent director for Smoove Xperience. (Read more)

Samiran Gupta steps down as X Corp's India & South Asia policy head 

Head of Policy for India and South Asia at social media platform X, Samiran Gupta, has stepped down from his role. His responsibilities included handling important content-related policy matters, representing Twitter's stance on new policy changes, and providing support to the sales team in India, as per his LinkedIn profile. During his tenure at X, Gupta also collaborated with various Indian government departments such as the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), CERT-In, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, and the Ministry of Home Affairs on issues related to online content and security. (Read more)

Vinod Sivarama Krishnan joins Essar as Chief Digital Officer  

Vinod Sivarama Krishnan has started the new position as Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at Essar. Before this, he was Chief Information Officer at telecom tower company Indus Towers Limited. Krishnan started his career with Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) as Systems Manager in 1993 and gradually he moved up the ladder in bigger IT and business leadership roles with different companies. Thereafter he was associated with Usha International, Wal-Mart India, Jubilant LifeSciences, Palladyne International Asset Management, GE, Brooke Bond Lipton India and Hindustan Unilever in various tech leadership roles. During his long career, Krishnan has spent close to 15 years with many of the GE Group companies including GE Equipment Services Europe, GE Bayer Silicones GmbH & Co KG, GE International Operations Co. Inc., and GE Plastics India Ltd, where he held different roles and functions.