i-flex brass to join new Oracle business unit

Oracle Corporation, which controls the Mumbai-based i-flex solutions, has decided to bank on the expertise of the latter's management team for its global operations.

The US-based company has announced the formation of a new business unit called Financial Services Global Business Unit (FSGBU) to further its presence in the financial services-specific applications market. The new division, to be based in New York, will have three top i-flex executives at the helm. While Rajesh Hukku, the incumbent CMD of i-flex will head the Oracle FSGBU as the general manager, R Ravisankar, i-flex' CEO for International Operations and Deepak Ghaisas, CEO, i-flex (India Operations) and CFO will join the Oracle FSGBU management team.

According to Oracle, the new business unit will aggregate Oracle's financial services-specific applications offerings and serve as a vehicle for future acquisitions in the financial services sector.

Hukku will continue on the i-flex board as non-executive chairman and will oversee i-flex activities.

In its meeting held on Tuesday, the i-flex board also approved the expansion of its management team to leverage Oracle's global organisation for the banking industry.

N R K Raman, currently chief operating officer, has joined the i-flex Board as the managing director and chief executive officer. Both R Ravisankar and Deepak Ghaisas have been elevated to the i-flex board as vice chairmen.

Derek Williams, executive vice president of Oracle, will also join the i-flex Board. Makarand Padalkar, currently chief of staff and Head, Investor Relations, will assume the role of chief financial officer, the company said.

"This is an integral step in i-flex's strategic roadmap to position ourselves better to capture the enormous opportunity in financial services by expanding our leadership team," said Hukku. "The changes will enable us to better leverage the synergies of i-flex's portfolio of products and services with the Oracle strategy for financial services."