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Meesho, the Softbank-backed e-commerce platform, has announced the appointment of four prominent figures to its board of independent directors. The new additions include Hari S. Bhartia, founder of the Jubilant Bhartia Group; Kalpana Morparia, former JP Morgan Chairman for South and Southeast Asia; Rohit Bhagat, non-executive Chairman of PhonePe; and Surojit Chatterjee, CEO of the San Francisco-based AI company Ema.
Hari Bhartia is a notable business leader, being the Founder and Co-Chairman of the Jubilant Bhartia Group, which comprises four major companies listed on Indian stock exchanges with a combined market capitalization of approximately USD 7.65 billion. He also holds significant positions as Co-Chairman and Managing Director of Jubilant Pharmova Ltd, and Co-Chairman of Jubilant Ingrevia Ltd and Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, the master franchisee for Domino’s Pizza and Dunkin’ Donuts in India.
Kalpana Morparia brings extensive experience from her tenure as Chairman of JP Morgan and her influential role at ICICI Bank, where she was key to the bank’s capital raising efforts and the merger with ICICI Ltd in 2002. Rohit Bhagat, who is currently the non-executive Chairman of PhonePe, also holds positions as an independent director at AssetMark and the Lead Independent Trustee of Franklin Templeton ETF Trust. His past board positions include serving on the boards of Axis Bank, Flipkart, and FreeCharge.
Surojit Chatterjee, known for his pivotal role as Chief Product Officer at Coinbase, where he led the company through a successful IPO in 2021, has a strong background in product management from his tenure at Google, where he significantly scaled Google Mobile Ads and Google Shopping.
Meesho’s Founder and CEO, Vidit Aatrey, expressed excitement about the new appointments, saying, “We believe their combined expertise and varied perspectives will be instrumental in guiding the company towards new achievements and ongoing success as we continue to transform the e-commerce sector in India.”
The new directors will join Meesho’s current board, which includes co-founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, as well as Ashutosh Sharma from Prosus Ventures, Mohit Bhatnagar from Peak XV Partners, Mukul Arora from Elevation Capital, and Sarthak Misra from SoftBank Investment Advisers.