Flipkart reshuffles board; to add CEO

Walmart-owned Flipkart has reshuffled its board of directors. Beginning January, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, the CEO of Flipkart, will be inducted into the company’s board. Other new directors to be inducted in the board are Keki Mistry, vice-chairman and CEO, HDFC, and two new directors from Walmart — global chief technology officer and chief development officer Suresh Kumar and Leigh Hopkins, who is executive vice-president of strategy and development for Walmart International.

The announcement of the new board appointments was made by Flipkart in an email to its employees on Thursday. A company spokesperson confirmed the appointments. In an email to employees, Krishnamurthy said four of the current directors will be stepping down after steering the company through the first two years after Walmart’s investment. These include Rajesh Magow, Rohit Bhagat, Steuart Walton and Dirkvanden Berghe.

“We are sad to see all four step down but delighted that we will not have to say goodbye to any of them; Rajesh and Dirk will continue to support us in an advisory capacity, Steuart will continue to sponsor us fromtheWalmartboard, and Rohit will be chairing thePhonePe board,” he said. “I am happy to share with you all that at the board meeting earlier this month, your board was highly appreciative of all our efforts this year, expressed pride in the progress we have made and looked forward to seeing the next chapter of our development as we move towards 2021,” Krishnamurthy said.

In2018, Walmart invested $16 billion to acquire 77%stake in Flipkart, and earlier this year, titled a $1.2-billion funding round in the e-commerce company. While the company hasn’t officially announced plans for IPO, there have been reports that Walmart is exploring options to list Flipkart in the US.

—With inputs from PTI

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