Looking to expand its online business in India, Alibaba has recently been in talks to hire Flipkart’s director-HR.
China’s online marketplace giant, the Alibaba Group, has been extensively making inroads in the Indian e-commerce space. With an aim to expand its workforce in the country, it has apparently been in talks to hire Flipkart’s director-HR, Priya Cherian. It is speculated that this move can help Alibaba poach more talent from the Indian e-commerce space.
Cherian has been working with Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce player, since April 2015 before which she had spent more than six years working with Yahoo. She was also the HR partner for WorkFlowOne. Priya, who started her career with Reynolds & Reynolds has over 17 years of experience.
Alibaba is in the process of starting its consumer-facing online business here by early 2017 and Bharati Balakrishan, former chief business officer at local services marketplace, LocalOye, was the first senior-level hire made by the company for its local team in India. In March, it also hired Vinay Bhartia as senior vice-president for strategic partnership. Bhartia largely takes care of Alibaba’s business to business (B2B) platform in the country.
The group, which has earlier invested in India’s payment service provider and marketplace Paytm and e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal, is looking to grow its footprint in India and has been exploring the acquisition of a stake in Flipkart and Snapdeal as well.
