News: Ola COO Arun Srinivas resigns

C-Suite

Ola COO Arun Srinivas resigns

Srinivas’s exit follows that of Nitin Gupta, CEO of Ola Financial Services and comes exactly a year after he joined.
Ola COO Arun Srinivas resigns

Ola’s Chief Operating Officer and Global Chief Marketing Officer Arun Srinivas has resigned and is serving notice, as per reports. He leaves the company exactly a year after he joined. In addition, Sanjiv Saddy, Senior Vice-president, policy and government affairs at Ola has also put in his papers. He served at Ola for only eight months.

Ola confirmed these exits stating, “Arun Srinivas, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer and Sanjiv Saddy, SVP- Corporate Affairs, are moving on to pursue other opportunities outside of Ola. The organization wishes them well in their future endeavors.”

A former Vice-president at Unilever, Srinivas had joined Ola after a stint at private equity firm Westbridge Capital, heading its investments in the consumer vertical. Meanwhile, Saddy, a former Flipkart executive, had joined in December to drive relationships with key authorities including government agencies. 

Srinivas’s exit is the latest CXO-level exit from Ola. He had an expanded role in the company. As COO he owned the P&L of the flagship cab-hailing business in India as Bhavish Aggarwal positioned himself as the group CEO overseeing an array of businesses including the electric mobility, financial services, food business, and international expansion. Srinivas was also the Global Chief Marketing Officer. He also led the recent London launch of Ola in February this year.

Srinivas’s exit follows another high profile exit-that of Nitin Gupta, CEO of Ola Financial Services. The exit comes at a time when the ride-hailing firm is going through tough times. In May, the cab aggregator laid off 1,400 employees from rides, financial services, and food business as revenues declined by 95 percent in the last two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Also, the company underwent a sharp reduction in remuneration at the top level. In an email to employees in May, Aggarwal made it clear that the prognosis ahead for the business is "very unclear and uncertain" and the impact of this crisis is "definitely going to be long-drawn for us".

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Topics: C-Suite

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