Tata Cliq gets new CEO as Tata Digital reshuffles management

Tata Group has hired Gopal Asthana as the CEO of its fashion business Tata Cliq which has been shifted to Tata Digital even as Shivcharan Pulugurtha, chief strategy and business officer of Tata Neu, has exited just a year after joining the firm, The Economic Times reported on Friday.

Vikas Purohit, who had exited the group earlier this year, is being replaced by  Asthana, who is the ex-chief business officer of Nykaa Fashion. Asthana’s appointment has not been formally announced by the group yet.

After Mukesh Bansal, who previously started Myntra and also is cofounder of Cultfit, joined the firm as its president, Pulugurtha was among the new executives to come to Tata Digital. Bansal, then, exited the firm in March.

Pulugurtha was handling strategy at Tata Neu. The report said that executives like Bhanu Pathak and Shoumyan Biswas are likely to share those responsibilities for now. Business verticals are likely to be handled by Pathak, who has been managing operations of key platforms on Tata Neu.

The report quoted sources as saying that Pathak has been working in partnership with Big Basket CEO Hari Menon on the e-grocery business and will also work on 1mg. Scaling at Tata Digital’s loyalty program Neu Pass will be overseen by Biswas who is the marketing chief of Tata Neu.

The report said that Tata Digital will be seeing more changes in the next few weeks. The report quoted a source as saying that Tata Cliq finalising a CEO has been a significant development, as it has been growing rapidly under Tata Digital. The changes at Tata Cliq are being finalised after the annual appraisal was recently closed at the e-commerce unit of Tata Group.

Tata Neu's sales during the Indian Premier League (IPL) season this year were 20 per cent higher than what was originally planned. The Tata Group was the sponsor of this year’s IPL.