Brands
Dabur likely to name Herjit Bhalla as CEO
MUMBAI: Dabur India could be on the verge of a corner office reshuffle. According to media reports, the company is likely to appoint Herjit S Bhalla as its next chief executive officer, marking a significant leadership transition at one of India’s oldest consumer goods firms.
If the appointment is confirmed, Bhalla is expected to report to current CEO Mohit Malhotra, who might be slated to move into a more senior and elevated role within the organisation. The change would underline continuity at the top, rather than a sharp change in direction.
Bhalla is a familiar name in global FMCG circles. He is currently with The Hershey Company, where he has spent more than eight years in senior leadership roles across India, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and, most recently, Canada. Based in Dubai, he now serves as vice president for Canada and Global Customers, following earlier stints overseeing India and the wider AEMEA region.
Before joining Hershey, Bhalla was chief operating officer for North and East India at Metro Cash and Carry, leading growth and expansion in some of the country’s most competitive wholesale markets. His deepest roots, however, lie at Hindustan Unilever, where he spent over 16 years across sales, marketing and general management roles in India and overseas.
At HUL, Bhalla led large teams, managed multi brand portfolios and played a key role in high impact growth initiatives such as Winning in Many Indias. His international experience includes running Unilever’s foods business across Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, where he handled a complex turnaround in a fiercely competitive market.
For Dabur, the reported move suggests a preference for a steady hand with both global exposure and strong India credentials. Bhalla’s career has been built on scaling brands, sharpening distribution and delivering consistent growth, all familiar terrain for a company whose fortunes are closely tied to everyday consumption.
Malhotra’s expected move into a broader role would also mark an evolution rather than a departure. Under his leadership, Dabur has navigated volatile input costs and shifting consumer demand, while reinforcing its core health and wellness positioning.
While Dabur has not made an official announcement, the reports have already set the rumour mill buzzing. If they hold true, the baton at Dabur may soon pass to a seasoned insider to the FMCG playbook, keeping the company firmly on a steady, familiar path.
Brands
Rakesh Menon joins Paytm as avp – lending
Fintech product leader takes on new role after building digital lending, payments and credit products across fintech ecosystem
MUMBAI: Rakesh Menon has joined Paytm as assistant vice president – lending, taking on a new role focused on strengthening the company’s lending and credit products.
Prior to this, Menon worked at Profectus Capital Pvt Ltd as chief manager – payments based financing and digital lending.
At Profectus, he designed and launched digital credit products for merchants with variable cash flows, including overdraft-linked and revenue-share lending models. He led end-to-end LOS–LMS API integrations with payment partners and aggregators, enabling real-time underwriting, disbursal and repayment workflows.
He also worked on funnel optimisation initiatives using journey analytics, improving onboarding, KYC and disbursal conversion by 35 per cent. He developed ecosystem partnerships for transaction-data-based credit assessment and automated settlement systems, and collaborated with credit and data science teams to strengthen risk models and early delinquency detection.
Menon standardised partner onboarding and API frameworks, reducing go-live timelines by 40 per cent and improving digital scalability.
Before Profectus Capital, he worked at PayU as senior manager – presales lead – enterprise business from August 2022 to August 2023. He set up a national presales function for fintech and digital commerce clients, aligning solutions such as EMI, BNPL, BBPS and offer engines to merchant requirements.
He also helped improve conversion rates by around 15 per cent through merchant persona mapping, demo frameworks and structured sales playbooks, working closely with product and go-to-market teams.
From April 2019 to July 2022, Menon served as business unit head – SMB – direct acquisitions at Worldline, where he built the SMB online payments vertical from scratch. The business scaled to Rs 2,500 crore in annual transaction volume, growing at 45 per cent year-on-year.
During this period, he introduced paperless onboarding processes including eKYC and eSign, developed partner dashboards and CRM automation systems, and integrated platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Tally to expand merchant adoption.
Across roles, Menon has worked across digital lending, payments and merchant financing, with experience in product development, ecosystem partnerships, API integrations and fintech-led growth strategies.
At Paytm, he will focus on scaling lending products and strengthening digital credit infrastructure within the company’s financial services ecosystem.
His appointment comes as fintech firms continue to expand their lending and embedded finance offerings in a competitive market.
