Spotlight: CXO movement this week (Feb 15 - Feb 21)

The week of February 15—21 saw several CXO movements in the tech industry. Technology providers like Cyient, Xoriant and Zscaler announced new business appointments, while non-tech firms like Barclays and REA India, among others, appointed new leaders to helm their IT and digital affairs. Movements also happened in startups such as PayU. Here’s the roundup:

Cyient appoints tech veteran Sukamal Banerjee as CEO

Midcap IT services firm Cyient Limited appointed Sukamal Banerjee as its chief executive officer and executive director for five years. Banerjee will also serve as key managerial personnel and be part of the senior management team at Cyient DLM Ltd. With over three decades of experience, Banerjee has held senior leadership roles in major tech firms, including HCL Technologies, where he rose to Corporate Vice President, overseeing the engineering business. Most recently, he was the CEO and Board Member at Chrys Capital-backed digital engineering company Xoriant, which he joined in March 2023. Banerjee replaced Karthikeyan Natarajan, who resigned as Cyient’s CEO and executive director last month. (Read more)

Housing.com parent REA India names Abhishek Makkar as CTO

Australia-based digital real estate firm REA India, which owns Housing.com and PropTiger in India, has appointed Abhishek Makkar as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Based in the company's Gurugram office, he will lead the Engineering and Data Science Teams and join the REA India Executive Leadership Team, reporting directly to Dhruv Agarwala, CEO. Makkar has nearly two decades of experience in technology leadership having driven innovation at several global technology companies. In his most recent role at Expedia India as vice president -technology, he spent seven years spearheading core e-commerce technology initiatives. Previously at Amazon, he led global engineering teams for retail business. An M.Tech in information technology from the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore. (Read more)

Xoriant appoints former LTIMindtree executive as CEO

ChrysCapital-backed software engineering and digital services company Xoriant has announced the appointment of former LTIMindtree executive Rohit Kedia as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He will succeed Sukamal Banerjee in the role. Kedia brings over 28 years of experience in technology and digital engineering, having previously served as Chief Growth Officer at LTIMindtree, where he was the global leader for all technology practices and product businesses. Before joining LTIMindtree, he held several key roles at Larsen & Toubro Infotech. Earlier in his career, Kedia spent nearly two decades with the tech giant Infosys, serving in various leadership positions to drive the company’s growth. Kedia’s academic background includes a B.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi. (Read more)

Barclays appoints a new CIO for APAC to strengthen corporate banking business

Amaar Khan has been appointed as Managing Director, CIO & Head of Corporate Banking Technology, APAC and Middle East at Barclays. With nearly three decades of experience, Khan will develop a technology roadmap and work closely with the International Corporate Bank (ICB) to build product capabilities and drive commercial growth across the APAC & ME. He reports to Saket Sharma, CIO of Corporate Bank. Khan has delivered high-impact transformation projects in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. He was previously Managing Director, Chief Information Officer and Head of Engineering for APAC at Bank of New York (BNY). Before that, he was at the Bank of Singapore, Standard Chartered, Citi and Credit Suisse.

Zscaler gets a new head of its India commercial business

IT firm Zscaler has appointed Anurup Singhal as the Head of India's Commercial Business. With a robust background spanning nearly 20 years in companies like Microsoft and GoDaddy, Singhal is expected to lead Zscaler's initiatives to secure Indian enterprises in the evolving digital landscape. Singhal's career encompasses pivotal roles at Microsoft and GoDaddy, where he was instrumental in scaling businesses and driving demand generation. His appointment is anticipated to drive Zscaler's mission of enabling secure digital transformation for businesses across India. His leadership is anticipated to drive the adoption of such collaborative solutions, fostering a more secure and resilient digital infrastructure for Indian enterprises.

PayU appoints Pramod Rao as Chief Risk Officer

PayU, a digital financial services provider, has appointed Pramod Rao as its new Chief Risk Officer (CRO). Rao brings over 27 years of experience across banking, financial services, and telecom, and has a strong track record in risk management, investigations, transaction monitoring, compliance, business continuity management, and security. He has previously held leadership roles at Axis Bank, Vodafone Idea Ltd, Citibank, IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank, and HSBC. PayU has made several strategic appointments in the past 6-8 months, including Pranav Pandya as Chief Compliance Officer, Dimple Mehta as Company Secretary, and Rahul Bharadwaj as Head of Operations. Additionally, Ashok Patil has been appointed as Chief Risk Officer for PayU’s credit business.