Brands
Ayekart ropes in Vikas Varma as strategic advisor and mentor
Ex-Mastercard veteran joins to sharpen go-to-market and platform scale
NATIONAL: Ayekart has brought in former Mastercard executive Vikas Varma as strategic advisor and mentor, adding heavyweight fintech and payments expertise to its bid to build a tech-first agri-food supply chain.
Varma will work with the founding and leadership team on go-to-market strategy, commercialisation, partnerships, talent development and governance, as well as the architecture needed to support Ayekart’s next phase of scale.
A Fortune 500 technology veteran with more than three decades of experience across payments, cybersecurity, fintech and SaaS, Varma was previously chief operating officer, South Asia at Mastercard. In that role, he was a central figure in India’s digital payments expansion, working with banks, fintechs and regulators to roll out platform-led financial services at national scale.
“As we scale Ayekart’s farm-to-fork infrastructure, technology must deliver efficiency, transparency and trust across the value chain,” said Ayekart co-founder and CEO Debarshi Dutta. “Vikas Varma’s experience in building large digital ecosystems and enduring partnerships fits squarely with our ambition to design platforms for scale and resilience.”
Varma said Ayekart’s model of embedding technology across the agri-food economy gave it the foundations for long-term, responsible growth. “The focus will be on strengthening scalable platforms, trusted partnerships and robust governance,” he said.
Ayekart operates a vertically integrated, technology-led platform that links farmers and farmer producer organisations with processors, FMCG brands and retailers. The company is active across 22-plus states and has facilitated more than Rs 7,000 crore in lifetime gross trade value, working with over 550 FPOs and more than three lakh farmers through a network of 43-plus warehouses and 200-plus processing partners.
Brands
Lululemon picks former Nike executive to be its next chief
Heidi O’Neill, who helped grow Nike into a $45 billion giant, will take the top job in September
CANADA: Lululemon has found its next chief executive, and she comes with serious credentials. The athleisure giant named Heidi O’Neill as its new CEO on Wednesday, ending a search that has left the company running on interim leadership since earlier this year. O’Neill will take charge on September 8, 2026, based out of Vancouver, and will join the board on the same day.
O’Neill brings more than three decades of experience across performance apparel, footwear and sport. The bulk of that time was spent at Nike, where she was a central figure in one of corporate sport’s great growth stories, helping take the company from a $9 billion business to a $45 billion global powerhouse. She oversaw product pipelines, brand strategy and consumer connections, and played a significant role in shaping how Nike spoke to athletes around the world. Earlier in her career, she worked in marketing for the Dockers brand at Levi Strauss. She also brings boardroom experience from Spotify Technology, Hyatt Hotels and Lithia and Driveway.
The board was unequivocal in its enthusiasm. “We selected Heidi because of the breadth of her experience, her demonstrated success delivering breakthrough ideas and initiatives at scale, and her ability to be a knowledgeable change and growth agent,” said Marti Morfitt, executive chair of Lululemon’s board.
O’Neill, for her part, was bullish. “Lululemon is an iconic brand with something rare: genuine guest love, a product ethos rooted in innovation, and a global platform still in the early stages of its potential,” she said. “My job will be to accelerate product breakthroughs, deepen the brand’s cultural relevance, and unlock growth in markets around the world.”
Until she arrives, Meghan Frank and André Maestrini will continue as interim co-CEOs, before returning to their previous senior leadership roles once O’Neill steps in.
Lululemon is betting that a Nike veteran who helped build one of the world’s most powerful sports brands can do something similar for an athleisure label that has genuine love from its customers but is still chasing its full global potential. O’Neill has done it before at scale. The question now is whether she can do it again.
