LinkedIn names Akshay Kothari its India head

Kothari assumed this position in Bangalore from January this year

Professional networking website LinkedIn today announced Akshay Kothari, its principal product manager to head its India operations. Kothari replaced Nishant Rao, who recently quit the site to join as chief operating officer for Freshdesk, a startup.

Kothari assumed his position at Bangalore from January this year, as per his LinkedIn profile. Earlier, he was working from Mountain View, California headquarter of LinkedIn.

In his new role as India head, Kothari will report to Olivier Legrand, LinkedIn's managing director for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, and join the company's APAC senior management team, the site said in a statement.

India has one of the largest users for LinkedIn after the US and has more than 400 million members globally.

Kothari joined LinkedIn in 2013 when Pulse, the company he co-founded was acquired by LinkedIn. In the US, he was responsible for leading several major product and content initiatives, including Pulse, which has become as one of teh fastest growing consumer product.

Under his leadership, the number of members publishing on LinkedIn went from 1,000 to nearly 2 million in the last two years, the website said.

Within six years of LinkedIn's presence in India, its member base saw a ten-fold increase to more than 33 million, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top executives such as Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon, who have their profiles on it.