Harness, an AI-native software delivery platform company, has appointed Prashant Verma as the Head of R&D, India Center. 

An IIT Delhi alumnus, Prashant comes with over 24 years of engineering leadership and is renowned for building high-performing engineering teams. He has previously contributed to leading enterprise and consumer product organizations such as i2, Informatica, Goldman Sachs, LinkedIn, Flipkart, Zoomcar, and Traveloka.

In his new role, Prashant will focus on establishing Harness India as a global innovation hub, building a world-class R&D center with top-tier talent, and fostering a tech-first culture where engineers drive innovation and take ownership. He will also enhance collaboration with global teams across the US, Europe, and other regions, while positioning Harness India as a thriving workplace and employer of choice.

Jyoti Bansal, Co-founder and CEO, Harness, “We are thrilled to welcome Prashant Verma as Head of R&D, India. His proven expertise in building and scaling high-performing teams aligns perfectly with our vision for Harness India. Under his leadership, the India Center will play a pivotal role in driving impactful innovation and contributing to our global growth strategy.”

Prashant Verma, Head of R&D India, Harness, said “I am honored to join Harness and lead the R&D India Center. Harness India will be a core driver of the company’s global growth and innovation journey. My vision is to build a world-class R&D hub that empowers engineers to solve complex problems, deliver transformative solutions, and contribute to impactful success.”

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Securonix, Inc. announced that Kash Shaikh has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer and member of its Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Kash succeeds Nayaki Nayyar who has been serving as the CEO of the security vendor since December 2022. Nayaki has decided to step down and focus the next phase of her career on public Board service, the company said in a press release. 

Kash is a seasoned enterprise technology Executive with Fortune 50 experience and has a record of driving profitable growth across Software, SaaS, and AI Infrastructure markets. 

He has over 30 years of experience of fostering business transformation and delivering innovative technology solutions for global enterprise organizations. He most recently served as President and CEO of Virtana, a leading hybrid-cloud infrastructure observability solutions provider.

Prior to Virtana, Shaikh served as Global Vice President and General Manager for Dell’s Enterprise Solutions Unit. Shaikh has also held leadership and executive positions at Ruckus Wireless, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, and Nortel Networks.

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AI and data consulting firm 66degrees has appointed Pankaj Chugh as President and Chief Operating Officer. In this role, Chugh will oversee the company’s sales, marketing, alliances, and solutions. 

Chugh most recently served as an Executive Vice President at LTIMindtree where he ran the Retail & Consumer business, scaled some of the largest clients in Tech industry, set up delivery centers in India and US, ran the global Digital Product & Platform Engineering business, and incubated and rapidly expanded the Google Cloud business. Prior to this, at Infosys he ran and grew different industry portfolios across Europe and Americas, and led growth strategy and M&A for Infosys’ Europe and global Hi-Tech and Manufacturing verticals. 

“Pankaj’s expertise in building technology services businesses, scaling global teams, and serving as a key client advisor will serve as a great complement to our talented team, allowing us to continue to scale and better serve our existing accounts,” said Ben Kessler, CEO.” With his arrival at 66degrees, Pankaj immediately adds to three of our 2024 strategic pillars: setting client success as our north star, bringing solutions and accelerators to market, and building our global delivery team.”

Pankaj Chugh said, “Every industry is rapidly becoming a digital-first industry. Cloud, AI and data have created renewed urgency to embrace the disruption. Clients have already been asking 66degrees to help navigate the change, and this is a great opportunity to support them leapfrog. I am very excited to be a part of one of the brightest technology and business minds in the services industry.”

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Global pharma major Lupin announced the appointment of Rakesh Bhardwaj as Chief Information Officer (CIO). He will be based in Mumbai and lead Lupin’s global Information Technology function and spearhead the company’s digital transformation.

Rakesh brings to Lupin rich experience of over three decades in building and managing cutting edge global IT teams and systems for some of the largest enterprises in the world. His last assignment was with Ola as Group Chief Information Officer, where he spearheaded the development of Ola’s Automotive Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) model, significantly impacting India’s electric vehicle (EV) sector by establishing over 900 Omni-channel Experience Centres.

He was also the Global CIO of Cognizant between July 2016 and January 2021, prior to which he has held leadership positions with Micro land, General Electric and BISIL. Rakesh holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering in Computer Science from Gulbarga University, Karnataka.

Commenting on the appointment, Ramesh Swaminathan, Executive Director, Global CFO and Head – Corporate Affairs, Lupin said, “Information Technology plays a critical role in advancing and expanding our horizons as a global pharmaceutical leader. We are pleased to welcome Rakesh to Lupin, further enhancing our IT foundation. With his expertise, he will drive our efforts in digitalization, process automation, data management and analytics, all of which will reinforce Lupin’s position as a frontrunner in innovation and excellence within the industry.”

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Palo Alto Networks has roped in Kunal Ruvala as Senior Vice President and General Manager for India. Kunal will lead the company’s India Development Centers with responsibility across all areas of the Network Security Product function and will oversee the next phase of growth and innovation for Palo Alto Networks India.

Kunal reports to Anand Oswal, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Network Security. In this role, he will partner with Anil Valluri, MD and VP, India & SAARC, who continues to lead the go-to-market efforts across the region. Kunal will also oversee partnerships with India’s higher education ecosystem to drive co-innovation in R&D efforts. 

Kunal has deep experience driving innovation at scale and leading growth initiatives at several organizations including Dell, RSA and EMC, and most recently as President of Honeywell Technology Solutions. He’s also been involved in Employee Resource Groups and is an inclusion and diversity champion.

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Veteran technology leader Dr. Avadhut Parab has joined Waaree Energies as CIO, according to various media reports. 

Founded in 1989, Waaree Energies is a global provider of solar PV modules and solar energy solutions. It has presence over 20 countries and offers a diverse range of solar solutions, including EPC services, solar products & utilities, energy storage, and more. 

Avadhut was previously the CIO of Parle Agro, the Indian beverages brand, for a little over two years before joining Waaree. Prior to that, he had a 17-year-old stint at Wockhardt, serving various leadership roles before becoming the Global CIO of pharmaceutical and biotechnology giant. He has also worked for brands like Atos and Unichem Laboratories. 

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Cybersecurity leader Vinod Kumar Gupta has joined TMF Group as Director, Global Head – Cyber Security Operations & GRC Practice. He joins TMF from SBI Card where he served as the Vice President of Cyber Security Operations. 

TMF Group is a global provider of compliance and critical business administration services and is present in 125 locations worldwide. 

In this new role, he will oversee the company’s cybersecurity operations, vulnerability management, GRC, budget and cyber strategies. 

Vinod comes with over two decades of experience having served a number of key roles in the cybersecurity domain for companies like HCL Technologies, Motherson Technology Services, Allied Digital Services and Omnitech InfoSolutions. He has a proven track record of developing and implementing cyber security strategies and policies, managing technology risk & compliance and ensuring cyber assurance and resilience. 

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Vidya Rao, CIO of Genpact has taken on an expanded role of Chief Technology and Transformation Officer. Her change in role comes as part of the company’s latest appointments aimed at strengthening its executive team with transformative digital leaders and propelling its AI-first strategy. 

In this role, Vidya will be at the forefront of reimagining Genpact’s internal processes, tools, technologies, and infrastructure with an AI-first approach. Furthermore, Rao will also play a crucial role in establishing a world-class data office to fortify Genpact’s data capabilities. This will enable Genpact to harness the power of data and drive insights to guide its AI and Automation initiatives effectively and shape our internal functions for the future, the company stated. 

Vidya is a global technology leader with over three decades of experience. She has been serving as the CIO of Genpact for over four years now and had a long stint with Accenture earlier, performing diverse roles and leading technology delivery for multinational clients. She also served on the board of Microfocus PLC until its acquisition by OpenText. 

Vidya has been recognized as one of the Top 50 Technology executives by Technology Magazine and Top 10 women by Mobile App Daily globally for her outstanding contributions to innovation and leadership.

Genpact also announced the appointment of Vipin Gairola as its Global Operating Officer. Gairola comes to Genpact from Accenture, where he served in several senior leadership roles over the past two decades. His most recent role was Chief Strategy Officer for Accenture Operations.

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Digital engineering services company Collabera Digital announced the appointment of Kaushik Sarkar as the President of the company. In this role, Kaushik will oversee all aspects of Collabera Digital’s markets, practices, and delivery, including strategy, marketing, alliances and M&A globally.

With a career spanning close to three decades, Kaushik has undertaken various management roles across the globe in large multinational companies such as Cognizant, TCS and IBM. Prior to joining Collabera Digital, Kaushik held the position of Group Vice President at Global Logic (a Hitachi company), overseeing all operations for the EMEA and APAC regions.

“I am delighted to welcome Kaushik as the President of Collabera Digital. Kaushik has a reputation for leading high-performing teams globally, showcasing a track record of successfully navigating intricate markets and demonstrated ability to scale and transform businesses. We wish him all the success as he propels Collabera Digital forward in its pursuit of excellence,” said Hiten Patel, Chairman of Collabera Group.

Commenting on his appointment, Kaushik Sarkarsaid, “We are on an exciting journey of progression with our clients in an ever-changing environment of technology driven innovation and disruption. I am excited and privileged to be a part of a company that is deeply committed to driving value with velocity for its customers, employees, partners, and stakeholders.” 

With a global presence spanning 11 countries throughout APAC and EMEA, Collabera is present in 25 locations and cater to over 300 clients including counting Fortune 500 companies. 

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Atlassian Corporation the provider of team collaboration and productivity software including Jira Software, Confluence and Jira Service Management, announced the appointment of Shamik Sharma to Head of Engineering, Commerce and Enterprise Agility. Shamik will report directly to Rajeev Rajan, CTO of Atlassian.

Shamik joins Atlassian with close to three decades of experience in the field of technology and engineering. He spent the past 5+ years at Cure.fit/Cult.sport, a company he co-founded, and prior to that he served as CTO and CPO at Myntra (a company in the Flipkart group). Across his career, he has held multiple senior leadership positions at Lytro Inc., RockYou, StumbleUpon, Yahoo!, Confluent Software and HP, among others. Having scaled organizations and processes from small founding teams to large & specialized teams, he has also built innovative products in e-commerce, digital advertising, gaming, digital media, social networks, enterprise software, and consumer electronics. Shamik has completed an M.S., Computer Science from the University of Maryland and B.Tech, Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

Speaking on the appointment, Rajeev Rajan, Chief Technology Officer, Atlassian, said, “Shamik’s experience in technology and e-commerce will add much value to Atlassian, both globally and in India. We want to become a 100-year company at Atlassian and the meaningful work that our teams are contributing to in India is critical to this trajectory. As India is our fastest-growing R&D site globally, we’re confident that Shamik will only help accelerate our path to building a world-class engineering team.”

Shamik Sharma adds, “With a great passion for building products and combined technical expertise, I’m excited to be joining Atlassian in its mission to unleash the potential of every team. I look forward to leveraging the potential of Atlassian engineering talent to build innovative new products that enhance workplace collaboration.”

Shamik’s appointment comes at the back of Atlassian’s recent hiring of Paranth Thiruvengadam for the role of India Site Leader and Head of Engineering IT Service Management. The company started with just over 60 employees in India 5 years ago and now has over 1,800 employees in 17 states across the country.

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