Freshdesk snaps up ex-Walmart Labs executive, while Visa Global Head and ex-Vodafone CEO join Pine Labs– 7 big HR shuffles from the startup world

Bill Gates had once envisioned that companies that gave extra flexibility to their employees would have the edge in the recruitment space.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had claimed on multiple occasions that the secret to his success was going to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world.

Whether it’s corporate honchos leaving their well-cushioned jobs to make their trysts with startups, or smaller companies aspiring to hire the best talent in the industry, the startup ecosystem seems to stick close to these two ideologies.

Here, we take a look at the personnel shuffles which made the headlines this week:

Freshdesk snaps up Walmart Labs’ executive as SVP Engineering

After having launched two products under the Freshdesk banner- Hotline and Freshsales, the Chennai-based company took another leap by hiring S.T.S. Prasad as the Senior Vice President for Engineering.

During his career, Prasad was known for developing technology platforms at Walmart Labs and Amazon.com. Before this, Prasad also founded enterprise mobile solutions company Aventon in 2001. He has also claimed leadership roles in companies including Kosmix, Junglee, HCL and Sybase.

As a part of his new office, Prasad will be responsible for accelerating Freshdesk’s technology development, while overseeing infrastructure enhancements to support Freshdesk’s growing customer base.

Shotang ropes in a new Vice President of technology

On-cloud based marketplace Shotang on Monday announced the appointment of Krishan Nagpal as its Vice President- Technology. Having a decade of experience in technology companies, Krishan has worked with startups and corporates alike, including CommonFloor.com, D.E. Shaw & Co. and IBM Global Process Services.

Shotang had picked up funding of $5 million in December from Exfinity Venture Partners and Unitus Impact Livelihoods Funds. It had also appointed industry veterans Sanjay Anandaram and Sameer Garde to its advisory board.

Privyplex announces a new co-founder and Chief Product Officer

Privyplex, a startup which helped Virat Kohli launch his Fanbox, appointed Sujit Mishra as its new co-founder and Chief Product Officer.

As a part of his new responsibility, Sujit is expected to lead the company’s product strategic direction, growth and vision. Sujit has held product leadership roles at PayTM, Dialogic, WizIQ, Dilithium and Lumata.

Qwikcilver appoints a former RBI Executive Director

End to end prepaid solutions company Qwikcilver announced the appointment of G. Padmanabhan, former Executive Director of the RBI, as the strategic advisor to the company.

Having over 36 years of experience in the banking and payments sector, Padmanabhan was the Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India, managing Payment and Settlement systems, the Foreign Exchange Department and Information at the RBI. He had also seen the introduction of new payment systems products like prepaid cards and m-wallets during his regime.

EarlySalary.com gets a new CTO

FinTech startup EarlySalary.com got ex-Infosys executive Vivek Jain to join as its Chief Technology Officer. Based out of Pune, Vivek brings two decades of industry experience to the startup.

Prior to this, Vivek was the Principal Architect at Infosys, leading core Banking and Financial Services automation, technology development and implementation.

Just a few weeks back, the startup had also appointed Vimal Saboo of the Edelweiss group as their Chief Business Officer.

• Pine Labs’ Board gets ex-Vodafone CEO and Visa Global Head

Payment solutions provider Pine Labs announced the appointment of Arun Sarin, ex-CEO, Vodafone PLC, and Vicky Bindra, Visa Global Head (Commercial Business, Financial Inclusion), to its board.

While Arun’s experience will help the startup through its growth, Vicky will lend his experience to the startup to develop deeper roots in the payments industry.

• Uniphore strengthens India Leadership Team

Chennai-based Uniphore appointed Vineet Kalucha as its new Director of Sales for India. Having over 18 years of experience, Vineet has worked in markets across Asia, including India, across the field of Information Technology and enterprise software products.

Holding an MBA degree from XLRI, Jamshedpur, Vineet has worked with companies like HCL, Talisma Corporation and C-Centric Solutions in the past.

And now, from the corporate world:

Microsoft names a new head for its India Research Lab

A week after appointing its new India head, Microsoft announced the appointment of Sriram Rajamani as the new managing director of its India lab.

Based out of Bangalore, Sriram will head Microsoft India’s innovation and scientific collaboration efforts.

Having a career encompassing various facets of Computer Science, Sriram has worked in areas of hardware and software verification, programming language design, distributed systems, security and privacy, cloud security and probabilistic programming.

He was also named an ACM Fellow in 2016 for his contributions to software analysis and defect detection by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Prior to this, he was the assistant managing director of Microsoft’s India research lab, which he joined in 2006.