India’s largest e-commerce company, Flipkart, has named Punit Soni as its new chief product officer. Punit Soni is a long time Google veteran and was a Google product management executive and former vice president of product management at Motorola.
Mr Soni will be leading the product definition and innovation function for Flipkart consumer products, marketplace and transaction platform. He will be responsible for driving product strategy, design and product marketing functions.
Mr Soni has worked at Google for the past eight years, helping develop products like Google News, Books, Google Plus — and, as the VP of product management at Motorola while Google owned it, three phones: the MotoX, Moto G, and Moto E.
Mukesh Bansal said of the appointment.
The next stage of Flipkart is here. As we build a leading-edge technology company, we are pleased to welcome Punit to Bangalore to lead our product-related initiatives. His deep experience in launching successful tech-related products and extensive relationships in the US and abroad will help Flipkart stay on the cutting edge.Punit will help accelerate our innovation agenda in building products that consumers love.
Mukesh Bansal, who got into the firm after Flipkart acquired Myntra, a venture co-founded by him, last year, was made head of marketing and is reportedly CEO of the day-to-day operations.
Mr Soni said about his appointment
India is the next centre of tech innovation and growth globally, and I am excited to participate by moving to Bangalore for Flipkart. The next world-class technology company will come out of India, and it will be Flipkart.
Mr Soni holds an undergraduate degree (B.Tech) in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, a masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wyoming and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Two days ago Flipkart had reported that they had roped in Mckinsey’s Saikiran Krishnamurthy as the COO. Saikiran is expected to look at all day to day activities at Flipkart except logistics.
Flipkart was established in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. Flipkart co-founders are currently involved with strategy and logistics businesses and Mukesh Bansal is known to be heading the day-to-day operations at the firm. Saikiran Krishnamurthy will be reporting to Mukesh Bansal. While Sachin Bansal is looking after new initiatives and strategy, Binny Bansal is heading supply chain and logistics