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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Ninad Raje, a global tech leader and the former Chief Information & Transformation officer of HealthAssure, joins Jaquar Group as the Group CIO. Ninad had a long stint of over 10 years at the healthcare aggregator, serving diverse key leadership roles. 

In his recent role at HealthAssure, which also had the additional responsibility of Chief People Officer, he was responsible for leading holistic business transformation and cultural enhancement. He has been instrumental in fostering HealthAssure from inception to making it India’s leading healthtech company. 

He was earlier the Director & Head of Information Technology for UnitedHealth Group. In his close to 13-year-old stretch at UHG, he led several transformative initiatives for the American multinational health insurance provider. 

“Renowned for propelling organizations to exponential growth rates exceeding 20x through innovative technological transformations, Ninad’s expertise extends to driving the 4Ps—People, Performance, Productivity, and Profitability—with unparalleled precision,” a LinkedIn post by Jaquar highlighted.  Established in 1960, Jaquar is a multi-diversified ‘complete bathroom and lighting solutions’ brand.

An IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, Ninad brings over 26 years of global leadership across Manufacturing, Aviation, Insurance, Healthcare, Technology, and Financial Services. He has won many accoladed including the “CIO of the Year 2019” in Europe and is a recognized AI/ML and Cyber Security expert. 

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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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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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Snowflake announced the appointment of Vijayant Rai as the new Managing Director, responsible for driving the business growth and Go-To-Market strategy for Snowflake in India. Vijayant will be succeeding Vimal Venkatram, who has moved to a regional role for Snowflake, based in Singapore. 

Vijayant comes with over 27 years of extensive experience in senior sales positions across leading companies. Previously, he served as the Executive Director for Microsoft India, and was the Country Leader for the BFSI industry segment in the company. Prior to this, he also held leadership roles in Salesforce, SAP, and CA Technologies. 

He will spearhead Snowflake’s business expansion across India, overseeing strategy, sales and execution, fostering strategic partnership engagements across the country, and driving the adoption of Snowflake’s Data Cloud across various industries, such as retail and CPG, manufacturing, public sector, startups, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and BFSI.

“India is a dynamic growth market that is rapidly transitioning to a data-driven economy,” said Vijayant. “As Managing Director, my primary focus will be to help our customers fully mobilize their data into successful business outcomes. I am excited to join Snowflake at this pivotal point. Snowflake recently announced a slew of new features, including Snowflake Cortex currently in private preview, that facilitates businesses with swift development of AI applications, further bolstering their commitment to driving innovation in the Indian market. I look forward to working with the talented team at Snowflake India to support our customers in their quest for growth,” he added. 

Speaking on Vijayant’s appointment and Snowflake’s commitment to India, Sanjay Deshmukh, Senior Vice President of ASEAN and India, added, “Vijayant’s extensive experience in India of doing leadership roles with leading global technology organizations and helping customers in accelerating their transformation journey makes him the perfect fit for leading Snowflake in India. We believe that our business in India is at an inflection point of wider adoption across all industries, and with Vijayant’s successful track record in building and scaling businesses, we are confident that he will spearhead our expansion in the local market and drive strong growth across all of our portfolios.” 

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Securonix, the Unified Defense SIEM company, has appointed Venkat Kotla as Chief Technology Officer. In this role, Kotla is responsible for leading and scaling the company’s engineering function and fostering partnerships with leading technology organizations to support the growing demand for the company’s Unified Defense SIEM platform.

“I am thrilled to have Venkat join our executive leadership team,” said Nayaki Nayyar, Chief Executive Officer, Securonix. “As we continue to evolve and move into our next phase of growth, it is critical for our platform to scale with enterprise-grade reliability and meet the growing needs of modern enterprises charged with defending an expanding threat landscape. Venkat’s deep experience with advanced technologies, including AI, successfully expanding technology partnerships and streamlining processes across multiple stakeholders will be invaluable in driving product development that protects our customers from internal and external threats.”

With more than 25 years of experience at world class enterprise software companies, Kotla brings an established track record of driving engineering innovation at global organizations. He most recently served as Vice President and Head of Engineering for Economy BU at Atlassian, the makers of workplace productivity tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Trello. Kotla helped grow the Economy line of business to more than $500 million ARR.

Prior to joining Atlassian, Kotla spent over 14 years in senior engineering leadership roles at Google. He spent more than three years at Google as the Senior Director of Engineering for Google Assistant and the Google Looker, a multi-cloud enterprise SaaS for business intelligence, data applications, and embedded analytics.

“I’m excited to join a team that is hyper focused on product development and deeply committed to innovation,” said Kotla. “SIEM is the backbone of cybersecurity defenses, and Securonix has long been the industry’s premier solution provider. I look forward to working with the leadership team to incorporate advanced technologies into the platform and aggressively develop new partnerships with the world’s leading technology providers.”

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