MAM
West Ham United in kit deal with Adidas
MUMBAI: English soccer club West Ham United and Adidas have announced a commercial partnership which sees the global sportswear giant become the club‘s official technical supplier from 1 June 2013. West Ham‘s technical partner for the past three years has been Macron.
Adidas returns to West Ham after nearly three decades. The new agreement will see Adidas produce the Hammers‘ team kit, replica kit, training wear and equipment for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons and will feature Adidas performance fabrics ClimaCool and ClimaLite technology, a mixture of heat and moisture controlling materials, ventilation channels and 3D fabrics which improve air flow to the skin and in key heat zones.
The team wore the company‘s strips for their best-ever league finish of third in 1986 and in the 1981 League Cup final.
The choice of Adidas also reflects the suggestions made by the club‘s supporter advisory board in discussions held about the Hammers‘ choice of technical partner.
West Ham United vice-chairman Karren Brady said, “We are delighted to team up with Adidas at such an exciting time in the club‘s history. They are an ideal partner due to their proven technical experience, innovation in product design and renowned quality of sportswear.
“The agreement with a world-famous sports brand provider is another signifier of our club‘s growing global standing. Adidas is a brand that West Ham United has a proud association with and we are looking forward to creating many more glorious memories playing in the famous three stripes,” said Brady.
Adidas senior manager commercial clubs Steve Holland said, “To partner with West Ham United again, considering there has been such an iconic past relationship, meant that there was genuine excitement from both parties as we agreed the deal. Adidas is confident the Hammers fans will truly appreciate the quality and design of the new kits and extended ranges and we wish the club every continued success on pitch for the coming seasons.”
As mentioned earlier West Ham‘s technical partner for the past three years has been Macron. The Italian sportswear company‘s CEO Gianluca Pavanello said the two would part on amicable terms.
Pavanello said, “Adidas will take over from Macron as the club‘s official technical partner. We would very much like to thank West Ham United FC, as we have very much enjoyed a great relationship with the West Ham family over these past three years, where we feel both brands have received international exposure.”
Brands
Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
