Former Google executive Sajith Sivanandan will assume the role of Tata Digital chief executive officer (CEO) on September 1— also the day the Tata Group company moves from its Fort office to a new address in Mumbai’s Prabhadevi — people in the know said.
Sivanandan’s appointment as CEO comes months after Naveen Tahilyani hung up his boots in May amid a period of flux at the top deck. He will be the third CEO of the platform established in 2019. E-mail queries sent to Tata Digital on the new appointment did not elicit any response till press time.
A leader with global digital experience
Sivanandan brings with him more than two decades of experience in building and scaling digital businesses across consumer, content and payments.
His predecessor, Tahilyani, a Tata Group veteran, stepped down earlier this year after just 15 months at the helm. Before him, founding CEO Pratik Pal exited the firm in early 2023. Flipkart co-founder Mukesh Bansal, who joined Tata Digital as its first external senior hire as president in 2021, left in 2023.
Sivanandan had spent a decade and a half at Google, handling various roles across different geographies. He was part of the core team that established the payments business across Asia-Pacific, leading cross-functional teams in the region. His role involved navigating fast-changing regulatory environments while working closely with product and engineering teams to launch new features that drove growth and user engagement.
At Disney+ Hotstar, which he joined as CEO in October 2022, he was responsible for overall strategy, product development, and growth. Most recently as president of Jio Platforms, the digital services arm under Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, he worked on building digital services at scale for Jio Mobile, underpinned by artificial intelligence.
Tata Digital’s ongoing overhaul
Reports suggest that since May this year, Tata Digital has been overseen by a committee of senior executives including Gaurav Hazrati, Hardeep Singh Guru, Seshadri Venkateshwaran, Satyam Mehra, Vinay Vaidya and Abhimanyu Lal. Additionally, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran has reportedly been actively involved in the company’s overhaul, conducting weekly review and keeping close tabs on the performance of various verticals.
As part of an organisation-wide overhaul, Tata Digital expanded Vaidya’s role in July, naming him chief product and technology officer.