Spotlight: CXO movement this week (Sept 30 — Oct 6)

The week (September 30 - October 6) was buzzing with several CXO movements in the tech industry with some of the major appointments in key business positions. Technology firms like Commvault and MongoDB made important new appointments, while non-tech firms like HDFC Bank, RPG Group and Standard Chartered Bank also appointed new executives to lead their tech affairs. MyGov also appointed a new CEO of its India Semiconductor Mission. Movements also happened in startups like Dunzo. Here’s the roundup: 

Ex-Wipro CEO Abidali Neemuchwala joins Axiscades as Chairman 

Technology veteran and former chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) of Wipro Abidali Neemuchwala has joined Axiscades, a technology solutions company focussing on engineering solutions and services, as chairman and non-executive director. Neemuchwala, whose career spans over three decades in the technology industry, began his journey with Tata Consulting Services (TCS) in 1992 and joined Wipro in 2015. He was subsequently named CEO and MD with a mandate to pivot the company to its digital future. Neemuchwala has a bachelor's in engineering (BE) degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Raipur, and a master's degree in Industrial Management from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. (Read more)

MyGov CEO Akash Tripathi to lead India Semiconductor Mission 

Akash Tripathi, chief executive of the Centre’s citizen engagement platform MyGov, is set to become the new CEO of India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), starting 9 October. ISM functions as an independent, specialised division under the Digital India Corp. Tripathi, a 1998 batch IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh cadre, holds a Bachelor of engineering in electronics. He began his career as an inspector in the income tax department in Bhubaneswar, subsequently serving as inspector in central excise, customs, and service tax in Kolkata. He also served as a collector director for Indore and Gwalior, collector deputy secretary, and collector undersecretary, Morena, and Balaghat, and the commissioner undersecretary at the Indore municipal corporation. 

Abhijit Singh to lead HDFC Bank’s BaaS, Digital Ecosystem Banking 

Abhijit Singh has started the new position as Group Head - Banking as a Service (BaaS), International Banking and Digital Ecosystem Banking at HDFC Bank. Before this, he was Chief Technology & Digital Officer at HDFC Limited. Singh holds an MBA in Finance from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, India, and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the University of Mumbai. He is a veteran in Banking technology, emerging technology, and fintech with over 25 years of experience covering a variety of roles across various industries in multi-cultural set up such as product development, large-scale digital transformation, project execution, and running of operations of a digital bank. He has done pioneering work in game-changing financial solutions in emerging technologies like AI/ML blockchain and aiding in the digital transformation of large organizations. He was earlier associated with HDFC Capital Advisors Limited, DigiAlly, OakNorth, ICICI Bank, ANZ, Royal bank of Scotland and ABN AMRO Bank. 

Ex-Mahindra digital head Amol Deshpande joins RPG Group 

Amol Deshpande has been appointed as Group chief digital officer and head of innovation at RPG Group. At RPG his focus areas will include strategizing and implementing an enterprise-wide transformation leading to a digital, agile organisation, identifying opportunities to leverage emerging technology impacting key business functions and promotion of digital and data-first thinking across enterprise functions, and drive change management. Before this, he was Head of Digital - Farm & Agri Sector at Mahindra Rise. He was earlier associated with INCAT, Chrysler LLC, DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company, Geometric Design and Computing Lab and Tata Motors. 

Zuzar Tinwalla to lead tech for India and South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank 

Zuzar Tinwalla has been promoted to Chief Technology and Operations Officer, India and South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank. Before this, he was Chief Operations Officer at the same company. Prior to this, Zuzar was previously the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Standard Chartered Bank, India from 2015. Zuzar has been focused on finding innovative ways to leverage digital solutions to enable growth and scale; pioneered unique product propositions through a customer centric approach; embedded analytics to drive powerful decision making; optimized costs by driving efficiencies and productivity; strengthened foundations in risk and control and worked towards building an innovation mindset and a customer centric, business co-creator culture. 

Commvault appoints Richard Gadd as its new SVP for EMEA and India 

Commvault, an enterprise data protection company has announced the appointment of Richard Gadd as its new Senior Vice President for the EMEA and India (EMEAI) region. In this role, Gadd will oversee efforts to provide global organizations with robust cyber resilience solutions designed to safeguard against contemporary cyber threats and facilitate data recovery.  Gadd brings with him 25 years of sales experience in the technology sector. His most recent position was Vice President and General Manager for EMEA at Cohesity, where he gained substantial expertise in storage and data management. Prior to this, he held senior positions at Hitachi Vantara, EMC, and Computacenter. (Read more)

MongoDB appoints Jim Scharf as its new Chief Technology Officer

Database management company MongoDB has recently appointed Jim Scharf as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In his new role, Scharf will be responsible for leading MongoDB's global engineering team, collaborating with senior leaders to define and implement the company's technical vision and strategy, as well as overseeing the development and delivery of MongoDB's products and services, the company said. Scharf comes to MongoDB with a wealth of experience, having spent 17 years at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he played a pivotal role in driving substantial growth and overseeing various departments, including product management, software engineering, security, operations, and solutions architecture, resulting in the success of several products and services. He also holds over 20 patents related to cloud technologies during his tenure with the cloud company.  (Read more)

Dunzo co-founder and CTO Mukund Jha steps down 

Mukund Jha, the co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) of quick commerce company Dunzo, is reportedly stepping down. This comes just a day after Dalvir Suri, another co-founder of Dunzo, left the company that he helped establish in 2015. While it is not clear what Jha's next move will be, insiders suggest that he has already taken a step back from daily operations. A formal announcement regarding his departure may be made in the coming weeks, and some employees within the company have already been informed of this impending change. (Read more)