Nine leadership changes, dated and sourced. Monday’s four were boards deciding how long to commit and who sits on them; a fifth that week, Varun Beverages, was a board deciding to build an entirely new business around a single hire, appointing a three-decade Diageo veteran to run its new alcoholic-beverages subsidiary before it has sold a single bottle. By the end of the week the boards were deciding who leads. TVS Motor set out a five month handover to its next chief executive, LIC Housing Finance replaced a superannuating chief in a single day, and Meta lost the executive who had run its India business since 2023 to OpenAI. Then on Saturday HDFC Bank said its chief executive would not seek another term, ending months of succession uncertainty at India’s largest private lender. Every person named here is on our watch list.
24 Aug
Vishal Mega Mart reappointed
Gunender Kapur as managing director and chief executive for five years from 1 September, ten months before his current term was due to expire in June 2027. The board acted on its nomination and remuneration committee’s recommendation, subject to shareholder approval. The shares rose as much as 11.57% on the day. Source:
Moneycontrol, 24 August 2026.
24 Aug
Fino Payments Bank extended
Ketan Merchant’s tenure as interim chief executive by three months from 27 August, subject to Reserve Bank of India approval. It is his second extension. Merchant, previously the bank’s chief financial officer, took the role after the arrest in February of managing director and chief executive
Rishi Gupta over alleged goods and services tax violations. Source:
Business Standard, 24 August 2026.
24 Aug
Imperial Auto, the fluid transmission components maker, appointed
Sandeep Bathla chief global operations officer, reporting to managing director and chief executive
Vikram Wagh. He arrives with three decades in manufacturing and the automotive industry, most recently as executive director and chief operating officer at Plasser India. Source:
People Matters, 24 August 2026.
24 Aug
slice appointed
Samir Sawhney executive director and
Ramesh Kumar independent director to its board, with the Reserve Bank of India also approving Sawhney’s appointment. Sawhney spent more than three decades at the State Bank of India before leading the National Housing Bank’s RMBS Development Company; Kumar spent two decades at ICICI Bank in technology and digital banking and had earlier advised slice during its merger with North East Small Finance Bank. Source:
Entrackr, 24 August 2026.
25 Aug
Varun Beverages board approved a wholly owned subsidiary,
KIVA Spirits and Company, to enter the ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages market, and appointed
Prathmesh Mishra chief executive and managing director. Mishra spent more than three decades in consumer businesses, most recently as Diageo’s managing director for Korea and Japan, and before that as Diageo India’s chief commercial officer and chief operating officer for the west. Source:
CNBC-TV18, 25 August 2026.
28 Aug
TVS Motor Company named
Peyman Kargar director and chief executive from 27 January 2027, in a press release filed with the National Stock Exchange at 10:15 that morning. He succeeds
K.N. Radhakrishnan, who stays in the job until the handover and then serves as a non-executive director until the annual general meeting in July 2027. Kargar joined TVS in 2025 to run international business, which the company says contributes 29% of sales volume; before that he was global chairman of Infiniti and chief executive of Nissan’s Datsun brand. Source:
Mint, 28 August 2026.
28 Aug
Sandhya Devanathan left
Meta after a decade to join
OpenAI as vice-president for South East Asia and Australia. She joined Facebook in 2016 and had run Meta’s India business since January 2023, later adding South East Asia to her remit. Source:
The Hindu, 29 August 2026.
28 Aug
LIC Housing Finance appointed
Sandeep Kumar managing director and chief executive from 29 August, at a board meeting disclosed to the exchanges the same day. He replaces
T. Adhikari, who ceased to hold the role at the close of business on 28 August on superannuation from Life Insurance Corporation. Kumar joined LIC in 1991 and had been director and chief executive of LIC HFL Financial Services since 2025. Source:
CNBC-TV18, 28 August 2026.
29 Aug
HDFC Bank said
Sashidhar Jagdishan would not seek reappointment as managing director and chief executive, and will retire on 26 October. The board said it had tried to persuade him to reconsider, that he reaffirmed the decision, and that it would accelerate the search for a successor. Jagdishan joined the bank in 1996, became chief financial officer in 2008, took the top job on 27 October 2020 and went on to oversee the merger with Housing Development Finance Corporation. Source:
Mint, 29 August 2026.
Movements is a factual, dated record of leadership change in Indian business, published weekly. This edition covers the week of 24 August and grows as the week runs.