BENGALURU: Flipkart‘s chief operating officer Nitin Seth, one of the top ranking executives at the firm, has put in his papers, according to two sources familiar with the development. Seth, who was in charge of logistics unit Ekart besides corporate functions like strategy and human resources (HR) till recently, is leaving the organisation citing personal reasons.
The development will further tighten the grip of CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who last week took over the HR function, as reported by ET.
Seth’s exit will put the former Tiger Global Management executive in charge of all the key functions of the organisation.
“Ekart and corporate functions, that Seth was in charge of, will now report to Kalyan,” said the source cited above. A company spokesperson did not reply to ET’s queries at the time of going to press.
Seth, who joined in February 2016 as chief people officer, had seen his responsibilities quickly grow even as Flipkart went through multiple management restructurings. He was first elevated to chief administrative officer in the middle of 2016, putting him in charge of strategy and corporate function. Seth was finally given the title of COO in January, when Krishnamaurthy took over as Flipkart CEO from cofounder Binny Bansal, who took over as group CEO.
As COO, Seth’s additional responsibilities included heading Ekart and customer experience, besides existing responsibilities. Before joining Flipkart, Seth worked as the MD of Fidelity International where he was responsible for the its offshore operations across India and Tunisia. Before Fidelity he led McKinsey’s global knowledge centre in India for eight years. Seth was reporting to Krishnamurthy. Flipkart is also separately looking to hire an HR head, but it is not clear if it will hire a new head for Ekart.
Seth’s exit comes at a time when the Bengaluru-based company is in talks to acquire rival Snapdeal, where it will need to redistribute the over 1,000 employees at the company. Flipkart is also in the process of integrating acquisition of eBay India, making HR a key function for the organsition right now.