Digital
Godrej Group’s Pankaj Singh Parihar joins Condé Nast India as chief business officer
MUMBAI: Condé Nast India announced on Thursday the appointment of former Godrej Group VP & head of digital Pankaj Singh Parihar as the chief business officer. In his new role, Parihar will be responsible to lead the commercial teams in defining and delivering on advertising revenue targets, while shaping the company’s sales and marketing strategy & business growth. He will play an integral role in the delivery of all commercial revenue including digital and print sales, branded content, social, video and events for the company. Parihar will report directly to Condé Nast India’s managing director Alex Kuruvilla.
On the appointment, Condé Nast India managing director Alex Kuruvilla said, “2021 was the year when Digital + Video became the largest commercial platform for Condé Nast India. The future growth will continue to be driven by these platforms along with our events business, which is beginning to make a comeback. I am excited to have Pankaj on board with us as his experience in driving large scale digital transformation for businesses across industries will be significant as Condé Nast aims to strategically partner and provide our digital audience and data (1P) and content (IP) capabilities.”
On his new role, Pankaj Singh Parihar said, “Condé Nast has recently been through a global transformation and it’s an exciting time to be part of the company. The premium brands of Condé Nast India have always been a source of inspiration to me and I am eagerly looking forward to working with Alex Kuruvilla and leading the commercial teams at Condé Nast India towards the next phase of growth, business transformation and digitisation of the organisation.”
Parihar parted ways with the Godrej Group after serving over 8 years in the company. He was a part of the leadership team at Godrej Consumer Products. He was leading the digital center of excellence-digital marketing, digital commerce, and digital transformation at GCPL. He was also in charge of monitoring the entire cycle of consumer journeys on digital and digital marketing for all GCPL brands.
Parihar joined the multinational conglomerate in 2014 as associate vice president and head of digital transformation. His responsibilities at the organisation included driving and operating the D2C channel, overlooking the digital & growth marketing, creating a seamless data stack and driving actionable insights for the company.
He had also worked for behemoth brands such as Ogilvy, Omnicom Media Group and The Times Group.
Digital
OpenAI’s Stargate lead Peter Hoeschele exits with two senior leaders
Trio behind compute push set to join new startup amid leadership reshuffle
SAN FRANCISCO: Peter Hoeschele, a key figure behind OpenAI’s early Stargate data centre initiative, has exited the company, according to a report by The Information.
The departure is part of a broader leadership shift, with two other senior executives, Shamez Hemani and Anuj Saharan, also set to leave in the coming days. All three are expected to join the same new startup, although details about the venture remain under wraps.
The trio played a central role in OpenAI’s Stargate effort, an initiative aimed at building large-scale data centre capacity in-house to reduce reliance on external infrastructure providers. Their exits mark a notable moment for the company’s compute strategy as it continues to scale rapidly.
OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to The Information, “We’re grateful for the contributions Peter, Shamez, and Anuj have made to OpenAI and wish them the very best in what comes next.” The company also pointed to the recent appointment of Sachin Katti to lead its industrial compute organisation, signalling continuity in its infrastructure roadmap.
OpenAI has indicated that it does not plan to directly replace Hoeschele’s role, suggesting a possible restructuring of responsibilities within the team.
As competition intensifies in the race to build next-generation AI systems, leadership changes in core infrastructure teams are likely to draw close attention. For now, the spotlight shifts to what this departing trio builds next, and how OpenAI adapts as it scales its ambitions.
