Srini Vudayagiri Quits Lightspeed Venture Partners

Sreenivasulu "Srini" Vudayagiri, an India based Venture Director with Lightspeed Venture Partners, is quitting the venture capital firm. When contacted, Vudayagiri said, "I will be transitioning out of Lightspeed by end of this month." He declined to comment on his next move, saying he will announce his plans at an appropriate time. "I will continue to be in the industry," Vudayagiri said. Vudyagiri joined Lightspeed in 2007 from Thomas Weisel International, where he was heading the India-focused fund of funds. Thomas Weisel's India fund was sold off to Guggenheim Partners last year. Lightspeed's India investments include Four Interactive (which runs local search firm AskLaila) and Tutorvista, an online tutorial business. Earlier this year Lightspeed appointed Bejul Somaia as Managing Director in India, a position which was held by Vudayagiri before. Vudayagiri was appointed as a Venture Director around that time.
Lightspeed, which has an India office in New Delhi, is now looking to make PIPE (private investment in public equity) deals, and is looking for a mix between early and late stage companies. It's looking for investments in areas like healthcare, education, fincial services, advertising & media, besides its focus area of technology.

Source: VCCIRCLE

Star's Yashpal Khanna may start new venture in the media space

Yashpal Khanna, executive vice-president, Star India, has resigned after a 17-year tenure at the company. Confirming the development, Khanna said: “I have enjoyed my stint at Star. I have met and worked with some extraordinary professionals and, hopefully, have contributed to the growth of the company that I joined in 1992. I am leaving because I felt it was time to explore some of my dreams. I am now turning to be an entrepreneur, leveraging my experiences of my 35-year career and the relationships that I have built and nurtured over the years.”However, Khanna would not confirm what he was starting except to say that “the new venture would be in the media and communications space."Khanna joined Star when it was run by the original owner, Richard Li of Hutchison Whampoa. He started his Star stint under Siddharth Ray, as virtually a one-man ad sales team.Khanna was a critical member of Peter Mukerjea’s core team after Mukerjea joined Star India, overseeing the advertising sales function. Khanna moved from his ad sales role to look after marketing, business development, client relations and corporate communications functions.While a number of those who formed part of Mukerjea’s core team joined INX Media on Mukerjea’s exit, Khanna opted to stay at Star India.

Source: Brand Republic

Arvind Jadhav is new CMD of Nacil

Arvind Jadhav, a 1978 batch Indian Administrative Service officer, has been appointed the chairman and managing director (CMD) of National Aviation Co. of India Ltd (Nacil), which runs the Air India branded airlines. The appointment has been approved by the Prime Minister’s Office late on Thursday evening, a senior government official told Mint. Jadhav’s candidature was suggested by a committee headed by cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar last week after the government decided to replace the incumbent CMD Raghu Menon. Jadhav is likely to take office on Monday

Source: Livemint

Top-level rejig at Aditya Birla Nuvo; Rakesh Jain named MD

The Aditya Birla group on Tuesday announced top-level reshuffle at Aditya Birla Nuvo. The Birla group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, said it had appointed Rakesh Jain as managing director of Aditya Birla Nuvo, due to the completion of the tenure of the current MD Bharat Singh.

Mr Singh is likely to be given a new responsibility to look after the various trusts of the group. Although this wasn’t immediately confirmed, the Birlas have a precedent of moving their senior executives into advisory roles or as part of in-house thinktank, post retirement.

When contacted, group HR director Santrupt Mishra said: “We are looking for a new role for Mr Singh. Nothing has been finalised as yet.” The group’s corporate norms stipulate 62 years as the retirement age for executive directors. Mr Singh is scheduled to retire in July.

Mr Jain had come from one of the largest conglomerates, General Electric, and is hence considered apt for Aditya Birla Nuvo that has a presence in varied businesses such as textiles, life insurance and telecom.

Adesh Gupta, CFO and whole-time director at Aditya Birla Nuvo, has been appointed as CFO of Grasim Industries from May 1, 2009. Sushil Agarwal, who is currently the president of Birla Global Finance, will be taking over as CFO of Aditya Birla Nuvo.

Pranab Barua, the business director for garments for Aditya Birla Nuvo, has been inducted as whole-time director on the board of the company. “We have always appointed people from within the organisation as part of the senior executive team,” said Mr Mishra who has also been appointed as head of the carbon black business of the company.

Source: Economic Times

Air India gets new interim chief

Unhappy with the performance of state-run carrier Air India, the government has decided to appoint an interim chairman and managing director for the carrier in place of incumbent Raghu Menon, officials said. A simultaneous talent search has also been launched to find a regular chief to run the National Aviation Company of India Ltd, that was formed last year after Indian Airlines was merged into Air India. Menon, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), is being replaced by another officer from the service, E.K. Bharat Bhushan, who currently serves as joint secretary and financial adviser in the civil aviation ministry. The decision was taken after a high-power meeting here Friday chaired by Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar and also attended by Principal Secretary in Prime Minister's Office T K A Nair and Civil Aviation Secretary M Madhavan Nambiar. "Mr. Menon may be considered for the new regulatory authority for the sector. He is currently on leave," a senior official in the ministry said, referring to the proposed Airports Economic Regulatory Authority. Bharat Bhushan will continue to serve as joint secretary and financial adviser. The change has come in the backdrop of falling market share of the state-run carrier even though it is going through a major fleet expansion programme to induct 111 new Boeing and Airbus aircraft over the next few years. The company has already sought Rs.2,500 crore from the government in the form of equity and soft loan to finance the fleet expansion - 68 aircraft from the US manufacturer and 43 aircraft from the European consortium. Officials said the merger between Air India and Indian Airlines, with the stated objective of greater operational synergies, has also not been smooth, delaying the carrier's bid to join the Star Alliance, the leading global interline pact. A new role for Menon will be decided soon, even though his immediate predecessor at Air India, V Thulasidas, is also said to be in contention for the top post at the new aviation regulatory.

Source: Economic Times

ICICI Bank Management Rejig: Vaidyanathan Moves To ICICI Pru

Ahead of Chanda Kochhar taking over as the new MD & CEO of ICICI Bank, the India's largest private sector banking group has effected many other changes at the top level. V. Vaidyanathan, executive director, ICICI Bank, has been appointed MD & CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company. He replaces Shikha Sharma, who is going as the MD & CEO of Axis Bank. She is stepping down on April 30, 2009. Vaidyanathan will be replaced by Sandeep Bakhshi, MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company (ICICI General). Bakshi is the new ED of ICICI Bank and he will be responsible for retail and rural banking. Bakshi, in turn, has been replaced by Bhargav Dasgupta, ED, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. All these appointments would be effective May 1, 2009 and be subject to necessary approvals. Chanda Kochhar will take over as MD & CEO, ICICI Bank, from May 1. She has also been appointed non-executive chairperson of ICICI Life, ICICI General, ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company (ICICI AMC), ICICI Securities, ICICI Bank UK PLC and ICICI Bank Canada. She will assume charge after the bank's MD & CEO KV Kamath steps down on April 30, and assume office as non-executive chairman of the Board effective May 1, 2009. N Vaghul would retire as non-executive chairman of the bank as on April 30, 2009.

Source: VCCRICLE

Vikram Pandit may have to leave Citigroup

US regulators who are concluding “stress tests” on banks may remove Citigroup Inc chief executive Vikram Pandit, the New York Post reported, citing sources it did not identify further. The regulators may have to take such a step to show the government is taking as strong a stand on banks as it did with General Motors Corp when it removed Rick Wagoner, the paper said. Citigroup finance director Ned Kelly told the paper in an interview: “Replacing (Pandit) would be dramatically destabilizing both for Citi and the system”. “Our recent quarterly results reveal the underlying strength of the franchise and Vikram Pandit’s strategy at work to restore Citi to profitability,” a Citigroup spokeswoman told the paper. A Citigroup spokesman in Hong Kong declined to comment on the report. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s visit to Citigroup’s offices a week and a half ago was simply to conduct a check-up on the bank, the paper said, citing people familiar with the meeting. On Monday, the Financial Times website said that senior Federal Deposit Insurance Corp officials have privately discussed who might replace Pandit if the bank needed more government aid. Successors being discussed by FDIC officials included CFO Ned Kelly, Gary Crittenden, his predecessor and chairman of the division containing the New York company’s non-core assets, and one of Citi’s new board members, FT had said, citing people close to the situation.

Source: FT

Government to replace AI-IA CMD Raghu Menon

In a surprise move, the government has started the hunt for a new Air India -Indian Airlines CMD to replace Raghu Menon, the current CMD, who has still two years to go. Menon, an IAS officer of 1974 batch, was appointed CMD last April.Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar is scheduled to have a meeting of search committee with heads of other ministries on Friday to finalise the chairman of Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) and now finding Menon's successor has also been added to this meeting's agenda.The move to begin search for a new AI CMD has been kept secret as the mega airline is struggling to get over merger issues, especially with distrust running deep between former AI and IA employees. "The merger has been only on paper. At a time like this, the news that the government is trying to get a new head for AI would just send a message to worried employees that the owner (the state) is struggling to find someone to run the airline," said sources.Aviation secretary M M Nambiar will also attend Friday's meeting with the cabinet secretary. According to sources, Menon might be appointed head of AERA. While he had applied for the post first time round, the government had called for applications for the post again and that time he did not reapply.

Source: Times of India

PEOPLESanjay Modi To Head Monster India, Sanjay Trehan To Join MSN

Digital media witnessed two key appointments. Sanjay Trehan, former NDTV Convergence CEO will be joining Microsoft to head MSN. Trehan will report to Microsoft MD Hemant Sachdev. The MSN position has been vacant since Country Manager (India) Jaspreet Bindra took over as head of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices segment from Mohit Anand. Meanwhile, Monster, a leading global online careers and recruitment resource and flagship brand of Monster Worldwide, has elevanted India sales head, Sanjay Modi to managing director for India, the Middle-East and South-East Asia. His appointment is with immediate effect, a press release said today. Prior to this assignment, Modi was the company's head of sales in India. "We are already a leading player in the Indian, Middle-Eastern and South-East Asian markets, with significant opportunity to grow. I am absolutely delighted to be assigned this responsibility," Modi said.
Before joining Monster in 2001, Modi served at indiaconstruction.com as the general manager of operations, and in business roles at NIIT Ltd and Ingersoll Rand India, the release added.
Source: VCCIRCLE

BankAm Merrill India head & team join JP Morgan Chase

It could be one of the largest job shifts in recent times. Bank of America Merrill Lynch India head of global markets Kaku Nakhate and five of her team members are reliably learnt to have put in their papers at Merrill and joined the equities team of rival firm JP Morgan Chase in India. Ms Nakhate, one of the few top women to be heading a markets job in India, had only last month been named head of global markets at Merrill, after the integration with BoA. Although, it isn’t clear as to what Ms Nakhate and her team left, persons in the know told ET that senior officials at Bank of America Merrill Lynch tried hard to negotiate and persuade the team to stay back. The team consists of members from equity sales, trading, structured products and the fixed income team, which could greatly boost functions at JP Morgan. Both DSP Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Chase refused to comment on the issue. Ms Nakhate is the head of global markets for India, responsible for equity sales, trading and fixed income. The other five members are Sachin Parekh, Avinash Gupta, Manish Prasad, Aditya Khansaheb and Manish Tawde. Ms Nakhate was earlier managing director and co-head, institutional equities, at the erstwhile DSP Merrill Lynch. Ms Nakhate, a management graduate from NMIMS 1988, started her career with DSP Merrill Lynch, as part of the research team and rose to the current rank. Sachin Parekh was part of the equity sales team and is based in Singapore. Avinash Gupta, Manish Prasad, Manish Tawde and Aditya Khansaheb are part of the equity sales and structured products team in India.

Source: Economic Times