Spotlight: CXO movements this week (April 1 — April 5)

The week (April 1-5, 2024) saw several high-profile CXO movements in the tech industry. IT services firms like Genpact, Trend Micro, and Hitachi Vantara, made important appointments in key business positions, while non-tech firms like home appliances company Eureka Forbes hired new technology head. Movements also happened in startups like Perfios. Here’s the roundup:

Genpact appoints new India country manager

IT services company Genpact has announced the appointment of Piyush Mehta as India's country manager this week. This is an expansion of Mehta’s existing role as the chief human resource officer. As CHRO, Mehta shaped the company’s human resource strategy and now with the added responsibility of country manager, he will drive Genpact’s AI-first play in India, the company statement said. The company has opened and scaled three new operating centers in Tier 3 cities in India, including Madurai, Jodhpur, and Warangal — expanding its talent base and footprint. Mehta is working with Genpact for over two decades now. In the past, he has been part of companies like Unilever, AT&T, and PepsiCo. He is an alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur and Hansraj College in Delhi. (Read more)

Trend Micro elevates Sharda Tickoo to Country Manager for India & SAARC

Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro announced the elevation of Sharda Tickoo as the new Country Manager for India & SAARC. Tickoo has been an integral part of Trend Micro for the past 16 years, serving with steadfast dedication in the capacity of Director of Sales (large enterprises) and technical Leader for India and SAARC, besides holding other key positions. In her new role, Tickoo will lead Trend Micro to drive innovation, customer engagement, and market expansion efforts at the country level. She will report directly to Dhanya Thakkar, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing & US-AMEA Sales at Trend Micro. Before joining Trend Micro, Tickoo held various positions at organizations such as EY and Reliance. (Read more)

Eureka Forbes appoints Vikas Jayna as new CTO

Home appliances company Eureka Forbes has appointed Vikas Jayna as its chief technology officer. He will lead technology innovation at the company. An industry veteran, he has an experience of over two decades. Jayna has previously worked with companies such as InfoEdge, Amazon, Swiggy Dineout, and OneAssist, among others. His last role was that of director of engineering at Swiggy. Jayna is an alumnus of the Indian School of Business. In March, the company’s chief product and technology officer Shubham Srivastava stepped down from the post. He served the post from September 2022, where he led the development of a ‘next-generation’ health tech platform. (Read more)

Hitachi Vantara boosts enterprise tech with new Chairman

Hitachi Vantara, a subsidiary of Hitachi specialising in data storage, infrastructure, and hybrid cloud management, has appointed Akinobu Shimada as chairman to strengthen its ties with Hitachi Ltd.  Shimada brings a wealth of experience to his new role, having started his journey with Hitachi back in 2005. Over the years, he has held various positions within the company, focusing primarily on long-term business and product strategy in IT platform sectors such as storage, server, and data management. This appointment comes alongside a strategic realignment within Hitachi Vantara, intended to accelerate the company's growth trajectory. The realignment places a heightened emphasis on responding to market opportunities, particularly in hybrid cloud and generative AI. (Read more)

Perfios appoints ex-Adobe BFSI head Sridhar Narayan as Chief Business Officer

Fintech-focused software startup Perfios has appointed Sridhar Narayan as its Chief Business Officer. Narayan joins Perfios from global software firm Adobe India, where he led the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) Business. There, he helped set up the Digital Experience vertical and significantly scaled the business. In his new role, Sridhar will identify new growth avenues, drive strategic business development, and contribute to Perfios' market expansion plans. The Bengaluru-based startup helps financial institutions with processes such as origination, onboarding, decisions, underwriting, and monitoring. With a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Vishweshwaraya College of Engineering followed by an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Narayan brings over two decades of experience in sales and strategy, and before Adobe, he worked with technology companies such as Microsoft, ESRI, and IBM. (Read more)

Tech veteran Aref Chowdhury joins IEEE Photonics Society

The IEEE Photonics Society’s Board of Governors is proud to announce that Aref Chowdhury, Vice President of Strategy and CTO of Network Infrastructure at Nokia, has been appointed as the Vice President of Professional & Technical Development for the term of 2024-2026. Chowdhury received his Bachelor of Engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1994 in electrical engineering and applied mathematics and statistics, and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001. From 1995 to 1997, he worked as a Senior Engineer for Alcatel CIT. Thereafter, he joined the Optical Physics Research Department of Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA as a Member of Technical Staff in 2001. He has pursued research in the areas of nonlinear optics, negative refractive index meta-materials, optical fiber communication, and white LED lighting. From 2008 to 2010, he served as Senior Manager of Intellectual Property and Standards. Since 2016, Chowdhury has served as a CTO.