Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart Group, will have a seat on the company’s board of directors, alongside HDFC CEO Keki Mistry, Walmart Global Chief Technology Officer Suresh Kumar, and Executive Vice President of International Strategy and Development from Walmart, Leigh Hopkins.
Steuart Walton, grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton; Dirk Van den Berghe, Executive Vice President of Walmart Asia; Rajesh Magow, co-founder of Makemytrip; and independent director Rohit Bhagat will step down from the board.
The reorganization of the board was announced to Flipkart employees via a company-wide email on Thursday.
“I wanted to let you know that this new year will see some changes to our board as several of our current directors will step down after guiding us through the first two years after Walmart’s investment,” Krishnamurthy said in the email.
The US retail giant will continue to retain three seats on Flipkart’s board after the restructuring. Walmart International President and CEO Judith McKenna will continue to serve as President. Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and former Tiger Global executive Lee Fixel will also retain their positions on the board.
“I am pleased to share with you that at the board meeting earlier this month, your board greatly appreciated all of our efforts this year, expressed pride in the progress we have made, and looked forward to seeing the next chapter in our development as we move forward to 2021 … “added Krishnamurthy.
Flipkart did not comment on ET’s specific query regarding the changes to its board as of Thursday’s posting time.
ET reported on December 14 that Walmart’s Berghe is retiring from Walmart and will subsequently leave the Flipkart board. ET had first reported in June last year about Flipkart’s plan for a public listing on a foreign market. ET also previously reported that the online retailer had held talks with investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to demand the public float.
Flipkart’s board changes come shortly after Walmart spun off Flipkart’s digital payments arm, PhonePe, a move that is expected to aim to attract outside capital for the company. PhonePe’s board of directors will be made up of co-founders Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari, along with Binny Bansal and Rohit Bhagat, who has resigned from Flipkart’s board now.
Flipkart was valued at nearly $ 25 billion in July, when it announced a $ 1.2 billion fundraiser led by Walmart. However, this was before PhonePe was spun off with an independent valuation of $ 5.5 billion.
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