Spotlight: CXO movements this week (Aug 17-21)

Artificial intelligence dominated senior technology appointments this week, with Sonata Software and Rackspace naming chief AI officers and Anthropic strengthening its applied AI leadership in India. Technology appointments at VZY and BPTP reflected the growing use of AI, platform modernisation and data-led services across consumer entertainment and real estate. Meanwhile, Genesys International and healthcare technology specialist CitiusTech announced senior leadership changes aimed at supporting their next phase of growth.

Sonata Software appoints Hariprasad Rebala as chief AI officer

Sonata Software has appointed Hariprasad Rebala as chief AI officer as the Bengaluru-based IT services company seeks to embed AI across its operations and client offerings. Rebala will lead Sonata’s AI strategy spanning services, delivery, platforms, organisational capabilities and technology partnerships. He will also focus on developing AI-native delivery models and helping clients move AI projects from experimentation to measurable business outcomes. Rebala brings more than three decades of experience across IT services, enterprise technology and startups. Before joining Sonata, he served as chief of AI solutions and growth at Gnani.ai. He previously co-founded Forfend and held senior roles at Mindtree, Capgemini and Wipro. Read more

Rackspace names Chetan Gupta as chief AI officer

Rackspace Technology has appointed Chetan Gupta as chief AI officer to drive its enterprise and sovereign AI strategy. Gupta will head the company’s Office of AI and oversee AI strategy, research, innovation, governance and adoption across Rackspace and its customers. He joins after nearly a decade at Hitachi, where his roles included general manager of the Advanced AI Centre in Japan, vice-president of the Industrial AI Lab in North America and head of the Global AI Centre of Excellence. Earlier, Gupta spent seven years at HP Labs, working on AI applications across logistics, manufacturing, energy and mobility. His mandate will include helping regulated and mission-critical enterprises deploy AI safely and at scale.

Anthropic appoints Rajat Pandit to lead Applied AI in India

Anthropic has appointed Rajat Pandit to lead its Applied AI operations in India as the Claude maker deepens its engagement with Indian enterprises and institutions. Pandit joins Anthropic after nearly eight years at Google Cloud, where he most recently served as head of customer engineering for India. His experience spans cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, engineering, consulting and technical sales. In his new role, Pandit will focus on helping organisations identify practical AI applications and move beyond experimentation towards production deployments. The appointment comes as Anthropic expands its presence in India and competes with other foundation-model providers for enterprise workloads, developer adoption and partnerships across the country’s rapidly growing AI ecosystem.

VZY appoints Uttam Tiwari as chief technology officer

VZY, Dish TV Group’s connected digital entertainment platform, has appointed Uttam Tiwari as chief technology officer. Tiwari will lead the company’s engineering, platform architecture, AI infrastructure and overall technology strategy as it develops AI-powered content discovery and personalisation capabilities. He joins VZY from BharatPe, where he was head of engineering for the consumer business and led engineering teams across consumer-facing services. Tiwari has previously held technology leadership roles at CARS24, Airtel Payments Bank, Microsoft, Tesco, GE Healthcare and IBM. His experience covers cloud platforms, distributed systems, platform modernisation, AI strategy and consumer technology. VZY brings streaming, live television and connected viewing services together across mobile devices and larger screens.

BPTP names Arvind Singh as chief technology officer

Real estate developer BPTP has appointed Arvind Singh as chief technology officer to lead its technology function and digital transformation programme. Singh will be responsible for strengthening the company’s digital ecosystem, modernising enterprise platforms and using AI-led initiatives to improve operational efficiency and customer and employee experiences. He brings more than two decades of experience in enterprise technology strategy and digital transformation across real estate, retail, travel and technology businesses. Before joining BPTP, Singh held leadership roles at M3M India, Puravankara Group, 7-Eleven India, Future Group and GlobalLogic. His appointment comes as real estate companies increasingly invest in digital customer platforms, data-led operations, automation and technology-enabled property management.

CitiusTech elevates Dhaval Shah as acting chief executive

Healthcare technology services company CitiusTech has elevated Dhaval Shah to acting chief executive officer with immediate effect. Shah was previously chief business officer for the company’s medical technology and life sciences businesses. He has spent more than 19 years at CitiusTech and helped build and scale both industry segments. As acting CEO, Shah will lead the company’s overall strategy and operations as it expands digital engineering, data, analytics and AI services for healthcare and life sciences clients. His elevation follows chief executive Rajan Kohli’s decision to leave the company by the end of August. CitiusTech said the transition was part of a succession plan already put in place.

CitiusTech also appointed Shyam Karunakaran president, expanding his responsibilities across enterprise strategy, markets, growth and execution. He previously led its healthcare payer and technology platform businesses during his 17-year tenure. Read more

Genesys International names Nikhil Alulkar as CEO

Genesys International Corporation has appointed former Tech Mahindra executive Nikhil Alulkar as chief executive officer. Alulkar previously served as senior vice-president and head of India business at Tech Mahindra. At Genesys, he will oversee operations, business execution and growth strategy as the geospatial technology company expands across enterprise and international markets. His mandate includes scaling its AI-native mapping, digital twin and spatial intelligence platforms and building more repeatable, platform-led offerings. Alulkar will also focus on strengthening government and institutional relationships. Genesys is seeking to reposition itself from a mapping services provider into a spatial intelligence platform serving sectors such as infrastructure, mobility, utilities, telecommunications, urban planning and land administration. Read more