Hires & Promotions: Uber, Heritage Foods, Otipy

Uber appoints Ameya Velankar as Head of Marketing for India South Asia

Uber has appointed Ameya Velankar as Head of Marketing, for India and South Asia region. Ameya will be working closely with the India SA leadership team to consolidate Uber’s growing presence in these strategic markets and further strengthen the brand Uber.

Ameya is a seasoned marketer with experience across Marketing, Sales & Operations. He has been the interim lead for INSA since Nov 2020, and has played multiple roles at Uber in his 2.5 year stint, including leading the Product Marketing mandate for Rides. Before Uber, he led Category Marketing for SC Johnson & was the Group Product Head in Marico.

On the announcement, Prabhjeet Singh, President, Uber India South Asia, said, “We are delighted as Ameya takes on his new role as Head of Marketing for INSA. Ameya has had a fantastic track record with Uber since 2019, and I am confident that he will help us build a stronger, diverse and more engaged marketing team. At Uber, we continue to build and strengthen a team of industry experts who appreciate the impact of ridesharing and drive innovation for a better tomorrow”.

Commenting on his appointment Velankar said, “I am extremely thrilled to be part of Uber's journey as it continues to reimagine the way the world moves for the better. Uber has had a great impact on cities & communities in India. I am excited to be a part of this journey & make the brand Uber accessible to millions of customers in India.”

Heritage Foods Names Srideep Nair Kesavan As Chief Executive Officer

Heritage Foods has appointed Srideep Nair Kesavan as the Company’s CEO.

He holds a B. Tech (Electronics & Instruments) degree and is an XLRI Jamshedpur MBA – PGDBA (Marketing) Alumni.

On his appointment, Brahmani Nara, Executive Director, said, "Heritage Foods looks forward to leverage his rich experience in converting strategies to outcomes, orchestrating synergies across functions with result orientation approach.” 

Kesavan has 20+ years of leadership experience as an innovative marketer and enterprising business leader with deep-domain expertise across Sales & Distribution, Marketing & Category management and P&L/General Management.

Prior to joining Heritage Foods, he held leadership positions at Coca-Cola (14 years) and Olam International (6 years). 

Otipy Ropes In Pranit Arora As Senior Vice President - Growth and Marketing

Otipy, community group buying platform for fresh produce, has named Pranit Arora as Senior Vice President - Growth and Marketing. Arora has close to a decade of experience in leadership roles across growth and marketing with companies like Reckitt Benckiser, OYO and GoMechanic.

In his new role Arora will be responsible for rapidly growing the network of community leaders, consumers and strengthening Otipy's growth/marketing playbook which will be implemented across multiple geographies within the country.

Varun Khurana, Founder & CEO, Otipy Said “We are in a rapid scale up phase and plan to double up our community leader base within this year. With Pranit’s rich leadership experience both in startups as well as MNCs we believe he is perfectly suited for driving this goal.”. 

Commenting on his appointment, Pranit said, “Otipy is smartly leveraging the community group buying model and building a unique ecosystem of community leaders who are delivering farm fresh produce and daily essentials at the doorstep of consumers. This creates a new distribution ecosystem that has disruptive potential, especially for the fresh produce category. I am excited about working on this massive opportunity “