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Microsoft name Aparajita Puri as managing director – strategic pursuits team (SPT)
Former McKinsey partner to drive large-scale enterprise transformation deals
MUMBAI: Aparajita Puri has joined Microsoft as managing director for its strategic pursuits team in India and South Asia, stepping into a newly created leadership role aimed at scaling large enterprise transformation initiatives.
The role is part of Microsoft’s India leadership structure and is focused on strengthening engagement with key clients, particularly as demand rises for large, tech-led business transformations. Puri will lead strategic deals across sectors, working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, data, and cloud adoption.
Her appointment marks a shift from consulting to big tech after more than a decade at McKinsey & Company, where she most recently served as partner. Over an 11-year stint, she held multiple roles across geographies, advising global clients on strategy and transformation.
Reflecting on the move, Microsoft managing director Aparajita Puri said, “After an incredibly rewarding journey at McKinsey, I’m excited to begin a new chapter at Microsoft.” She added that the shift comes at a time when technology and business transformation are converging at an unprecedented pace.
Puri also highlighted the opportunity to work on large-scale transformation mandates. “It’s an exciting time to be at the intersection of tech and business transformation, especially as AI, data and accelerated cloud adoption reshape industries,” said Microsoft managing director Aparajita Puri.
In her new role, she will collaborate closely with senior leaders including Lloyd Adams, Mark Leigh and Puneet Chandok, aligning with Microsoft’s broader push to deepen its enterprise footprint in the region.
With a background that spans consulting, finance and policy, including stints at global firms and academic exposure at leading institutions, Puri brings a mix of strategic depth and execution experience to the role.
Her appointment underlines Microsoft’s growing focus on India and South Asia as key markets for high-value digital transformation. As enterprises double down on AI and cloud, the company appears to be gearing up with leadership that can both spot big opportunities and see them through.
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YES Bank appoints S Anantharaman as chief risk officer
Former Jio Financial Services group chief risk officer takes charge of enterprise-wide risk at the embattled private lender
MUMBAI: YES Bank is not taking chances with risk anymore. The private lender has appointed S Anantharaman as its chief risk officer, a hire that signals the bank’s continued effort to rebuild credibility and tighten the controls that once famously slipped.
Anantharaman arrives from Jio Financial Services, where he served as group chief risk officer and built a risk management architecture spanning lending, payments, insurance broking and asset management from the ground up. Before that, he held the chief risk officer role at Bank of Baroda and senior leadership positions at HDFC Bank and L&T Finance Holdings. Three decades in banking and financial services, in other words, with scars and qualifications to match. He is a chartered accountant and a CFA charterholder.
At YES Bank, his brief is considerable. Anantharaman will oversee the bank’s entire enterprise-wide risk framework, covering credit policy, market risk, operational risk, information security, data governance, analytics, model governance and data privacy. It is, in short, every lever that matters when a bank is trying to prove it has grown up.
YES Bank’s turbulent past needs little rehearsing. What it needs now is exactly what Anantharaman has spent thirty years building: the kind of risk culture that stops problems before they become headlines. The appointment suggests the bank knows it.
