Byju's strengthens senior leadership in tech-first approach to growth

Even as Byju's has issued pink slips to hundreds of its employees, the educational technology (edtech) firm is strengthening its senior leadership team. It has appointed former Amazon executives Sunil Sharma as vice-president (V-P), engineering–student and teacher experience, and Darshan Bhandari as V-P, engineering–tuition centre and devices.

Sharma would be responsible for catalysing critical technologies (tech) to enhance student, parent, and teacher experience, along with customer care and mentor connection. Bhandari will lead the firm’s hybrid learning platform — Byju’s Tuition Centre — to scale up its tech capabilities.

“Byju’s tech-first approach makes it home to some of the world’s finest tech experts,” said Anil Goel, president, tech division.

With a career spanning over 21 years, Sharma brings with him the expertise of scaling up tech teams across companies like Amazon, Hewlett Packard, and AGT International. He was head of tech for freight auditing and payments at Amazon. 

Bhandari has over 18 years of experience in tech innovation and building talent across companies such as Amazon, Reliance Jio Infocomm, and Amdocs.

The company, which is valued at $22 billion, is strengthening its senior leadership at a time when the Byju Raveendran-led firm was planning an initial public offering. The company wants to go public by next year. It may do a primary listing in the US and a secondary one in India or vice versa, reports had suggested. Both the US and India are key markets for Byju’s.

The firm recently appointed Amazon tech veteran Vedhanarayanan Ganeshkumar as V-P–tech division.

Early this year, Byju’s had announced the appointment of Mani Bansal and Maneesh Agrawal to lead key tech functions in an effort towards strengthening its tech vertical.

In May, the firm appointed Himanshu Bajaj as head of business to lead Byju’s Learning Centre. Bajaj worked with consulting firm Kearney and led its consumer and retail practice across Asia Pacific. It appointed Rachna Bahadur as senior V-P to lead the global expansion plans for the firm as well. Bahadur was a partner at Bain & Company, where she was a leader in consumer product practice.

Last year, Byju’s announced the appointment of Mukut Deepak as head of business to lead its Class 4-10 school segment. Deepak was chief business development officer at Tata Sky and director for Tata Sky’s digital venture.

Byju’s is also set to promote its Chief Operating Officer Mrinal Mohit to a bigger role, including leading India operations, according to people familiar with the matter.

This is because Raveendran, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of the firm, is planning to focus on global expansion and acquisitions. 

The firm has made senior leadership changes, naming Krishna Vedati as president of global growth and strategic initiatives. Vedati, co-founder and CEO of Tynker, which teaches children coding, will report to Raveendran.