Flipkart has announced that it will elevate Kalyan Krishnamurthy, presently the chief of Category Design Organisation, to the position of company CEO. Chief executive officer of Flipkart, Binny Bansal, who took over the position almost exactly a year ago, will now be the CEO of the new Flipkart Group organisation.
Chief Administrative Officer Nitin Seth has been promoted to the position of Flipkart COO in this latest management rejig. Co-founder Sachin Bansal continues to hold the title of Flipkart's Executive Chairman, while Ananth Narayanan and Sameer Nigam will continue to be the CEO of Myntra-Jabong and PhonePe respectively.
"2016 has been truly an extraordinary year for Flipkart," Binny Bansal said in an emailed statement. "We are now ready to build the Flipkart of the future as we continue on our journey of transforming commerce in India through technology. I am confident that this new organisation structure will deliver further value for Flipkart group."
The new Flipkart CEO, Krishnamurthy is said to be close to Lee Fixel, the global head of private investments at Tiger Global Management, which owns 30-33 percent of Flipkart. He had played the roles of interim CFO and sales head during his first stint at Flipkart, but reportedly left after clashes with Sachin Bansal in 2014. As Flipkart CEO, Krishnamurthy will be responsible for the whole of Flipkart's retail business.
Krishnamurthy is also said to be the driving force behind many of Flipkart's lucrative exclusive partnerships, and responsible for bringing Motorola and Xiaomi back to the e-commerce site after their short stints with Amazon. He is also credited for the success of the Big Billion Day Sale in October 2016.
Flipkart's statement added that one of the focus areas of the Flipkart Group Organisation that will be headed by Binny Bansal "will be to build a portfolio of new, high value-creating businesses that are disruptive and will transform commerce in India."
In his new role, the Flipkart statement said, Binny Bansal will oversee "capital allocation across all the group companies, CEO selection and CEO compensation as well as to ensure each business is led by a strong CEO."
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