Appointments
Apple appoints Ashish Chowdhary to lead India operations
NEW DELHI: In a fillip to Apple CEO Tim Cook’s big future plans for the Indian market, Apple has appointed Ashish Chowdhary, Chief Customer Operations Officer at Nokia Networks, as its India operation head, reliable industry sources told IANS on Tuesday.
Chowdhary will join as Apple India head from January next year, the sources confirmed.
The decision to hire Chowdhary is a testament to the fact that Apple is aiming for a really long-term growth in a price-sensitive market where Apple is an aspirational brand and usually bought by those who have high spending power or can go for older generation phones for affordability.
In line with the development, Nokia also announced on Tuesday changes in the composition of its group leadership team, declaring that Chowdhary will “leave Nokia at the end of 2018 after 15 successful years.”
“Chowdhary will continue to lead Customer Operations and remain a member of the Nokia Group Leadership Team until the end of 2018. He will then leave Nokia to take a leadership position in another company,” said Nokia.
According to industry sources, Apple has roped in Chowdhary — who has a sound global as well as local knowledge of the industry — to get a bigger slice of a market that has nearly 450 million users and is one of the fastest growing, after China and the US.
Apple India is currently under Michel Coulomb who took over from Sanjay Kaul in December last year.
Chowdhary has 25 years of international experience in the enterprise and telecom sectors. As Chief Business Officer, he was responsible for Nokia Networks’ sales and operations globally.
He has held various leadership positions, including Head of Asia Middle East and Africa and prior to that, Head of Global Services Business Unit.
Both these units contributed nearly half of the company’s revenues and were key to the successful transformation of Nokia.
The appointment comes at a time when the iPhone maker is seeking tax relief and other incentives from the government to begin assembling more handsets in the country and its proposal to set up a manufacturing unit is also being evaluated.
Breaking his silence on Apple’s India presence, CEO Tim Cook admitted on November 1 that his business was flat in the country in the fourth quarter amid weak currency trends.
Cook, however, stressed he is still a big believer in the Indian middle class.
The Apple CEO also said that he has had really great productive discussions with the Indian government.
“We’ve had really great productive discussions with the Indian government, and I fully expect that at some point, they will agree to allow us to bring our stores into the country,” Cook responded to a question during the analysts’ call.
Apple is currently assembling iPhone 6S in India with its partner Wistron.
“I am a big believer in India. I am very bullish on the country and the people and our ability to do well there,” Cook said.
Cook is also aware of the tremendous growth opportunity in India.
“There’s a huge number of people that will move into the middle class. The government has really focused on reform in a major way and made some very bold moves.
“I applaud them for doing that and I can’t wait for the future there,” Cook told the analysts over call.
Source: IANS
NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel, India’s leading communications solutions provider, today announced the appointment of Naval Seth as the Head of Investor Relations. In this role, Naval will spearhead Airtel’s representation amongst investors, lenders, equity partners, & financial institutions and will report to Soumen Ray, Chief Financial Officer.
Welcoming Naval to the role, Soumen Ray, Chief Financial Officer, Bharti Airtel said: “We are delighted to have Naval with us. His deep relationships with the investment community, strong subject knowledge in Equity Research and Capital Markets will add immense value to the company as we steer ahead in our growth journey. I wish Naval the very best”
Naval joins Airtel from Emkay Global Financial Services Limited where he was Deputy Head of Research. Prior to that, he had worked with ICICI Securities Limited. Naval brings with him over 14 years of experience in Equity Research and Capital Markets. He has a deep research experience across both B2B and B2C facing businesses along with a trusted relationship with the investment community.
Over the years, Naval has been recognized for in-depth and differentiated research across the sectors- Telecom, Media and Consumer Discretionary. He has also been consistently voted by institutional investors and also ranked in Asia Money polls.
NEW DELHI: Taiwanese tech giant – ASUS, today, announced the appointment of Tribhuwan Joshi as Lead – Corporate Communications, PR and CSR, Consumer and ROG PC Business, ASUS India. He will oversee communications and brand reputation practice for ASUS’ consumer, lifestyle, and gaming device segments in the Indian market.
Commenting on the appointment, Paramjeet Singh Mehta, Marketing Head Consumer PC & Gaming, Systems Group at Asus India, said “As we continue to invest in talent, we are focused on identifying and providing opportunities to people where they can have the greatest impact on our business. Tribhuwan is a welcome addition to our team. His rich experience and in-depth understanding will help us in elevating the amazing work that we have been doing across the country.”
Tribhuwan will be driving Integrated Communications Strategy, Reputation Management, Brand Communications CSR Initiatives, Influencer & KOL Management for corporate & consumer campaigns, and drive market-specific campaigns for ASUS India. He has over 15 years of cross-functional experience across corporate and agencies. He has looked after communications strategy for some renowned organizations including Fujifilm India, HTC India, Panasonic India, Anchor by Panasonic, MSL Group India, and Team Orange PR.
On the announcement, Tribhuwan Joshi, Head – Corporate communications, PR and CSR, Consumer and ROG PC Business, ASUS India said, “It has been an absolute delight to have been associated with a robust brand like ASUS, which has been one of the leaders in the technology space. I am thrilled and ecstatic to embark upon this new journey and responsibility. I keenly look forward to working with the leadership team in strengthening the brand and its communications approach, while being devoted to exploring the best for the company’s growth.”
NEW YORK: Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American technology executive, is helping out Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk as he revamps the social media giant following its acquisition by the billionaire entrepreneur.
Krishnan is a general partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Now that the word is out: I’m helping out @elonmusk with Twitter temporarily with some other great people. I (and a16z) believe this is a hugely important company and can have a great impact on the world and Elon is the person to make it happen, Krishnan tweeted.
Krishnan added that he is still very much in my day job at @a16zcrypto. If you’re a crypto founder, you know how to find me!.
According to his profile on Andreessen Horowitz’s website, Krishnan invests in early-stage consumer startups and serves on the boards of companies Bitski, Hopin, and Polywork.
Prior to joining a16z, Chennai-born Krishnan held numerous senior product roles and most recently, he led core consumer teams at Twitter where he was responsible for products including the home timeline, new user experience, search, discovery, and audience growth, his profile said.
Previously, he created and oversaw various mobile ad products for Snap and Facebook, including Snap’s Direct Response ads business and the Facebook Audience Network, one of the largest networks in display advertising, his profile said. Krishnan started his career at Microsoft where he touched numerous projects related to Windows Azure.
Author of “Programming Windows Azure” published by O’Reilly, he also co-hosts with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy The Good Time Show’ on Clubhouse, a nightly show through which they interview innovators around tech and culture.
He is an alumnus of SRM Engineering College, Anna University where he did his Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Information Technology, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Last week, Musk completed the USD 44 billion acquisition of Twitter and ousted chief executive Parag Agrawal, legal executive Vijaya Gadde, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and General Counsel Sean Edgett.
Musk, according to reports, plans to rethink the company’s content moderation policies and permanent bans for users who previously violated the platform’s policies, including former President Donald Trump, although he said over the weekend that no major decisions have been made yet. He also is reported to be planning large layoffs at the company.
Musk has said the process of gaining a prestigious “blue tick” will be revised. Reports said the firm could start charging USD 20 per month to be verified. Many of Twitter’s most prominent verified users said they would leave if it tried to implement the plan.
Stephen King, an American author, tweeted: “USD 20 a month to keep my blue check? F that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.
Hours later, Musk replied to King: We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about USD 8?
A blue tick is currently free and a way of signalling an account is authentic. While there has been no official confirmation of the plan, on Monday Musk appeared to acknowledge the speculation in a new tweet which said: “On no, all our diabolical plans have been revealed!!”
In a separate development, Musk has denied a New York Times report that he plans to lay off Twitter workers before the start of next month to avoid having to make payouts.
The New York Times reported that Musk had ordered major job cuts across Twitter’s workforce.
Citing people with knowledge of the situation, the report said that some managers were being asked to “draw up lists of employees to cut.
The newspaper said the layoffs would take place before November 1, when workers were due to receive grants of shares in the company as a major part of their pay deals. But replying to a Twitter user asking about the report, he said: “This is false.”
The takeover has prompted discussion among Twitter users over what the platform will look like under Musk’s ownership, the BBC said.
Some have voiced concerns that more lenient free speech policies would mean people banned for hate speech or disinformation may be allowed back to the platform.
Source: Press TRust of India
