Hires & Promotions: Bata, VMware, CarDekho

Bata India Appoints Gunjan Shah As CEO

Bata India has named Gunjan Shah as its new chief executive officer. Shah will be at the helm of the brand’s operations in India. He takes over from Sandeep Kataria who has been elevated as the global CEO of Bata Brands.

Shah has extensive experience of working across varied sectors spanning consumer durables, telecom and FMCG. In his previous role, Shah was the chief commercial officer at Britannia Industries.

“I am delighted to welcome Gunjan on board as Bata India’s new CEO. Over the past few years, we have been consistently delivering strong growth in the highly competitive footwear market. Backed by decades of experience working with powerhouse brands, Gunjan understands the Indian market’s complexities and varied nuances. I’m confident that he will add value and strengthen Bata’s position in the Indian market,” said Ashwani Windlass, chairman, Bata India.

“India has always been a significant market for us from a global perspective. A dynamic leader like Gunjan will spearhead the company’s operations in India and given his extensive experience and track record, I am confident that he will take the Bata brand to even greater heights and deliver strong growth," Kataria added.

"I realise that I have big shoes to fill in and I’m thrilled about working with the talented & experienced Bata team. I look forward to building on the legacy of my predecessors in taking the Bata brand to new heights alongside creating long term sustainable value for all stakeholders in the company," Shah said.

Gunjan will be joining Bata during June 2021 and will be based out of Gurugram.

VMware Announces Rangarajan (Raghu) Raghuram As CEO, Sumit Dhawan As President

Mware has appointed Rangarajan (Raghu) Raghuram as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors, effective June 1, 2021. An industry veteran, Raghuram is a strategic business leader who currently holds the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Products and Cloud Services at VMware.

 “I am thrilled to have Raghu step into the role of CEO at VMware. Throughout his career, he has led with integrity and conviction, playing an instrumental role in the success of VMware,” commented Michael Dell, chairman of the VMware Board of Directors. “Raghu is now in a position to architect VMware’s future, helping customers and partners accelerate their digital businesses in this multi-cloud world.”

Since joining VMware in 2003, Raghuram has helped steer the company’s strategic direction and its technology evolution throughout VMware’s rich history. He helped grow the core virtualization business, drove VMware’s software-defined data center strategy, constructed and guided VMware’s cloud computing business and SaaS transformation efforts, played a pivotal role in the company’s M&A strategy, and has been key in driving partnerships with Dell Technologies, hyper-scalers and other strategic partners.

“VMware is uniquely poised to lead the multi-cloud computing era with an end-to-end software platform spanning clouds, the data center and the edge, helping to accelerate our customers’ digital transformations,” said Raghu Raghuram. “I am honored, humbled and excited to have been chosen to lead this company to a new phase of growth. We have an enormous opportunity, we have the right solutions, the right team, and we will continue to execute with focus, passion, and agility.”

“After a thorough and thoughtful search, the Board concluded that Raghu is the best person to lead the company as CEO, because he embodies our innovative culture, represents our values, and has a clear vision for VMware’s future,” said Paul Sagan, VMware’s lead independent director. “We also want to thank Zane Rowe for his leadership as Interim CEO and the crucial role he plays continuing as CFO.”

VMware also announced that Sumit Dhawan has been named President, leading all go-to-market functions including Worldwide Sales, Worldwide Partner and Commercial Organization, Customer Experience and Success (CXS), Marketing, and Communications. With his broad experience building and scaling subscription businesses and his customer-centric orientation, Dhawan is ideally suited to take on leadership of these teams. Dhawan currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at VMware where he has helped design the business strategy for emerging multi-cloud and subscriptions offerings, transforming how VMware’s customers can consume VMware services.

Sanjay Poonen, currently Chief Operating Officer, Customer Operations, has made the personal decision to leave VMware after his 7 years at the company, most recently leading Customer Operations and prior to that leading End-User Computing. “On behalf of the Board and the company, we thank Sanjay for his many contributions to VMware and wish him well in his future endeavors,” commented Sagan.

"I extend my warm congratulations to Raghu on his promotion to CEO and know he will take the company to new heights," commented Sanjay Poonen, Chief Operating Officer, Customer Operations, VMware. "I will be cheering on the company’s success, as I embark on my next adventure."

Mayank Jain Joins CarDekho Group As CEO – New Auto Business

CarDekho Group has further fortified its leadership team by appointing Mayank Jain as CEO of the New Auto business. He will be responsible for strengthening the organization’s new auto offering, and deepening engagement with OEMs, dealer network and other enterprise partners. He will operate out of the CarDekho Gurugram office and will be reporting to CarDekho CEO & Co-Founder Amit Jain.

Mayank Jain brings in rich experience of over 18 years working in technology, media and telecom sectors in India and Internationally. Prior to this, he was the CEO of the Hindi News cluster at Network18, where he managed a cluster of 7 news channels. He has held leadership roles in sales, marketing, product management and strategy in companies such as Disney Star, British Telecom, Samsung, and HT Media.

Amit Jain – CEO & Co-Founder CarDekho Group said, “I am delighted to welcome Mayank Jain to the CarDekho family. Mayank is a highly reputed professional in the media world and has an impressive track record of scaling businesses across varied industries. His deep customer understanding and expertise will enable us to design and provide the best AutoTech solutions to our partner customers.”

Speaking on his association with CarDekho Group, Mayank Jain said: “I am delighted to join the CarDekho group and have the opportunity to work with one of the best teams in the AutoTech space. Our market-leading portfolio of auto portals & platforms help customers buy Cars, Bikes, Commercial Vehicles and other products & services, whilst our suite of innovative solutions & technology enable Auto manufacturers and dealers to build their brands and sell more. It’s an exciting time for the industry, and I look forward to scaling the New Auto business by delivering greater value to our partner customers.”

Over the years, Mayank has made an enormous contribution across different industries. In the year 2019, he received the IMPACT 40 under 40 award for achievement in Media, Marketing and Advertising industry. He is a Computer Engineer and an MBA from INSEAD, and also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from MDI Gurgaon.