CHENNAI
OCTOBER 3, 2006
Redington India's high-profile CEO, Jitendra Kulkarni has quit the job to
pursue a career on his own. He is starting his own IT services venture soon and
will focus on supply chain management for IT distribution companies and vendors.
Kulkarni, who is currently traveling to Pune for some project-related work,
spoke to The DQ Week and confirmed his resignation from Redington India. “Yes.
The news about my resignation is true. And, September 30, 2006, was my last day
at Redington. Now, I am involved in my new project, which will take another
month's time to roll out,” said Jitendra Kulkarni.
In reply to a question about his new venture, Kulkarni said, “I will
announce it at the right time. All I can say now is am going to be in IT
business only, directly and indirectly supporting the distribution, sales and
logistics aspects of business which come under the wider scope of supply chain
management.” The project is currently under conceptual stage and Kulkarni sees
a big opportunity for his IT services, with VAT effectively coming into India.
Would Kulkarni's departure from Redington create a void at office and who
would succeed him are the million dollar questions in the industry circles.
Kulkarni joined Redington in October `98 as General Manager in Singapore, mainly
to put an ERP system in the IT framework. Within three months, R Srinivasan, one
of the directors and a key person at Redington, offered him the CEO post of
Redington India, seeing his skill sets and capabilities. No doubt, Kulkarni did
his job well and lived up to the expectations. He took Redington India from
strength to success, to make it a leading IT distribution house in the country
today. Kulkarni's many experiment and innovation in business turned out to be
very successful initiatives. Not to forget the company's recent venture in
consumer electronics/home appliances distribution with LG Electronics.
Before joining Redington in `98, Kulkarni worked with Tech Pacific. In fact,
he started his career with Godrej & Boyce in 1992, taking care of the EDP
activities. He was involved in various facets of business including payroll
management, manufacturing, finance and logistics, among others, which proved to
be the best learning ground for him. Kulkarni played a key role in the
organization, when Tech Pacific joint venture happened in 1995-96, by
implementing systems and processes for smooth and effective functioning of
business.
Kulkarni is basically a mechanical graduate from College of Engineering,
Karad (Maharashtra), coupled with management degree in finance from Narsee
Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai. Later, he also did a PG
diploma program in software technology from NCSD. Kulkarni hails from a place
called Wai in Satara District, Maharashtra, which is just 90 kms from Pune.
Currently, Kulkarni is settled in Singapore, where his family resides, though he
frequently shuttles between Chennai (India) and Singapore.
Meanwhile, the market news is that R Srinivasan, who created the CEO post for
Kulkarni in 1998, will come back to the helm at Redington India as MD, to manage
the overall show, while key people like PS Neogi and Kasturi Rangan will be
elevated to the post of presidents and Kulkarni's responsibilities will be
shared between them.