MAM
Recruiter Nupur Mehta jumps to James Douglas as managing partner
MUMBAI: Nupur Mehta has landed at James Douglas as managing partner, capping a year of musical chairs in India’s executive search industry. She left PageExecutive in September after just eight months as partner, having previously spent nearly 11 years at Michael Page climbing from senior consultant to director.
James Douglas positions itself as the successor to EMA Partners’ Indian operations, focused on recruitment and succession planning. Mehta will oversee the firm’s consulting work, helping companies identify talent and groom future leaders. She thanked K Sudarshan, Reet Bhambhani, Subburaj S, Sanjeev Das and Malini Bhupta in her LinkedIn announcement—presumably the team behind the new venture.
At Michael Page, Mehta ran the healthcare, life sciences and technology practices, managing a team of over 15 sales consultants whilst handling profit-and-loss responsibilities. She served on the Page Group’s global shadow executive board, the India technology board, the Asia-Pacific healthcare board and the India diversity and inclusion council. Before that, she spent two years as associate director building out the same verticals.
Mehta joined Page Group in 2014 fresh from business school, where she had specialised in human resources. A brief summer internship at Mercer, working on a retirement benefits survey, and a year as a software engineer at HCL Technologies rounded out her early career. Her move suggests James Douglas is betting on experienced recruiters to differentiate itself in a crowded market, where firms like Korn Ferry, Egon Zehnder and Russell Reynolds compete for high-margin executive mandates.
Whether the new firm can carve out a niche remains to be seen. India’s executive search business has grown as companies scramble for senior talent, but the sector is notoriously relationship-driven. Mehta’s decade-plus Rolodex may prove the firm’s biggest asset.
MAM
Time brings TIME100 Next franchise to India with Reliance
List to spotlight 100 emerging leaders, gala set for December 2026 in Mumbai.
MUMBAI: It’s about time India’s next wave got a global spotlight and now, it’s on the list. New York-headquartered Time is expanding its TIME100 Next franchise to India, partnering with Reliance Industries Limited to launch TIME100 Next India, its first international extension of the rising leaders platform. The announcement was made at the Time100 Gala in New York by Jessica Sibley and Nita Mukesh Ambani, signalling a strategic push to tap into India’s growing influence across sectors.
The India edition will recognise 100 emerging leaders from the country and the global Indian diaspora, spanning business, science, sports, arts and social impact. The list will be curated by Time’s editorial team and published online, continuing the franchise’s focus on identifying individuals shaping the future.
The initiative will culminate in a gala event scheduled for December 2026 at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, anchoring the platform within India’s cultural and business ecosystem.
TIME’s broader Time100 franchise has steadily expanded its global footprint since 2021 through events and impact-led initiatives. Executives noted that India’s growing pool of influential voices and innovators made it a natural next step for the platform’s international ambitions.
For Reliance, the partnership aligns with its broader push to support emerging talent and ideas on a global stage. For Time, it marks a timely bet on India not just as a market, but as a talent engine shaping the next chapter of global leadership.
