MAM
Hike strengthens leadership team with two key hires
MUMBAI: Hike messenger is beefing up its leadership team and has roped in Vidur Vyas as VP of marketing and Sumit Mehra as studio head.
While Vyas will be spearheading Hike’s marketing initiatives, brand positioning and strategic alliances; Mehra will be responsible for driving game strategy, development and production. The duo will be reporting to Hike CEO and founder Kavin Mittal.
Mittal said, “I’m excited to add Vidur and Sumit to our leadership team. It’s great to see such strong leaders in the industry share our vision to bring India online. I look forward to working with them and leveraging their experience to build Hike into a world class product and a brand that is loved by millions in India.”
Vyas added, “Hike is a fun, innovative and culturally relevant brand. I am excited by the opportunity to connect India online in a fun way and Hike is uniquely positioned to capture that opportunity.”
Mehra said, “Great games make people smile and for game developers that’s the final goal. When I met Kavin and heard his vision of a digitally connected India; I saw an opportunity to deliver millions of smiles a day. He and his team are doing some amazing work with Hike messenger and I’m excited to partner with them to bring great gaming experiences on Hike. For me there can’t be a bigger challenge and a more exciting mission to do this here in India and for India.”
Brands
OpenAI hires Nitin Bawankule as head of enterprise sales, India
Former AWS, Google and Disney+ Hotstar leader to drive AI adoption at scale
MUMBAI: OpenAI has appointed Nitin Bawankule as head of enterprise sales for India, strengthening its leadership bench as it deepens its push into one of the world’s fastest-growing AI markets.
Bawankule, who will join in mid-May, brings more than two decades of experience across cloud, media, and digital ecosystems. Most recently, he served at Amazon Web Services, where he led multiple high-growth verticals and helped accelerate enterprise adoption of cloud and AI solutions in India.
Announcing the move, OpenAI head of enterprise sales, India Nitin Bawankule said he is looking forward to helping organisations transition from “isolated AI pilots to company-wide transformation” and embedding AI into everyday workflows to unlock productivity and better decision-making.
Before AWS, Bawankule held senior leadership roles at The Walt Disney Company, where he led ad sales for Disney+ Hotstar and television networks, driving revenue growth across major sporting and entertainment properties. He also spent over eight years at Google, including a stint as country director for Google Cloud in India.
His appointment comes at a time when Indian enterprises are rapidly scaling AI adoption, moving beyond experimentation to integrating AI into core business functions. OpenAI’s decision to bring in a seasoned enterprise leader signals its intent to capture this opportunity and build deeper partnerships across industries.
With a strong track record in navigating major technology shifts, Bawankule is expected to play a key role in translating AI’s promise into practical, business-ready solutions for Indian companies.
As the race to operationalise AI gathers pace, OpenAI’s latest hire suggests it is gearing up not just to participate, but to lead from the front in India’s enterprise AI story.
