Meesho Onboards Four New Independent Directors

Meesho, India’s only true e-commerce marketplace, today announced the appointment of four Independent Directors to its Board: Kalpana Morparia, Hari S. Bhartia, Surojit Chatterjee and Rohit Bhagat. 

With their extensive experience across domains such as technology, finance, entrepreneurship, and governance practices, the newly appointed board members will play a key role in guiding Meesho's key initiatives and steering the company toward sustained success.

Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO at Meesho expressed, "Meesho’s steadfast focus to unlock the potential of India’s small business economy has helped us change the e-commerce landscape, making it more inclusive and accessible to billions of people across the country. Our ability to adapt to our users' needs and embrace bold strategies has led to remarkable growth, including our recent milestone of becoming the first horizontal e-commerce platform in India to achieve profitability. As we embark on the next phase of growth, I am thrilled to announce the appointment of Surojit Chatterjee, Kalpana Morparia, Rohit Bhagat, and Hari S. Bhartia as Independent Directors to Meesho's Board. We are confident that their collective wisdom and diverse perspectives will play a pivotal role in steering the company towards new milestones and sustained success in revolutionizing the e-commerce landscape in India.”

Hari S. Bhartia, is the Founder and Co-chairman of Jubilant Bhartia Group. The Jubilant Bhartia Group has four flagship companies listed on Indian stock exchanges, with a combined market cap of approximately $7.65 billion, including Jubilant Pharmova Limited, Jubilant Ingrevia Limited, Jubilant FoodWorks Limited, and Jubilant Industries Limited. Hari is the Co-Chairman and Managing Director of Jubilant Pharmova Limited as well as Co-Chairman of Jubilant Ingrevia Limited and Jubilant FoodWorks Limited, the master franchisee of Domino's Pizza & Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in India.

As a former President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and a key contributor to various educational, scientific, and technological programs of the Government of India, Hari Bhartia has made significant contributions to progress and innovation. Hari Bhartia and his brother Shyam founded the Jubilant Bhartia Foundation, focusing on community development in primary education, basic healthcare services, and livelihood generation programs. A Chemical Engineering Graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, Hari was conferred the Distinguished Alumni award by his alma mater in 2000.

Kalpana Morparia is a veteran leader in India's financial sector with over 45 years of experience. Recognized as one of the most powerful women in Indian business, Kalpana's career highlights include her role as Chairman South & South East Asia at JPMorgan, where she shaped strategy for India and ASEAN countries and maintained pivotal regulatory relationships. Prior to that at ICICI Bank Ltd, she was instrumental in the Group’s capital raising exercise as well as the merger of ICICI Ltd with ICICI Bank in 2002.

Kalpana’s experience as an independent director spans several global and Indian public companies where she has chaired audit, nomination and governance committees. Kalpana currently serves as an independent non-executive director on the boards of HSBC Holdings, Hindustan Unilever Limited, and Philip Morris International Inc., along with being an ex-board member of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. She is a governing board member of the Bharti Foundation, Foundation for Audit Quality and the Generation India Foundation. Additionally, she serves as an advisor to Temasek International. In addition to her professional achievements, Kalpana is dedicated to philanthropic work contributing to primary education in rural India, skilling the underprivileged, and enhancing audit quality in accounting firms. This year, she was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri by the President of India.

Rohit Bhagat is currently the non-executive Chairman of the Board at PhonePe, an Independent Director at AssetMark and the Lead Independent Trustee of the Franklin Templeton ETF Trust. His previous board and advisory roles span companies like Axis Bank, Flipkart, and FreeCharge, reflecting his deep understanding of diverse industries. His domain expertise is in Financial Services, FinTech, Capital Markets and Tech-enabled Services. He has substantial corporate development experience and has helped transition companies from the private to the public markets.

His leadership and operating responsibilities have included Chairman (Asia Pacific) at BlackRock, Global COO at Barclays Global Investors, and Senior Partner at The Boston Consulting Group. His academic credentials include a B.Tech. from IIT Delhi, an M.Sc. from the University of Texas, and an MBA from Northwestern University.

Surojit Chatterjee is the founder and CEO of Ema, a pioneering generative AI company based out of San Francisco. In 2021, he guided Coinbase through a successful IPO as its Chief Product Officer. Previously at Google, Surojit scaled Google Mobile Ads and Google Shopping into multi-billion-dollar businesses as the VP and Head of Product, cementing his reputation as a driving force behind major technological advancements. With a solid foundation in software development and a remarkable track record of driving innovation, Surojit brings a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective to Meesho. He is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and MIT Sloan School of Management.

Meesho’s board also includes co-founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Ashutosh Sharma, Head of Investments and M&A at Prosus Ventures, Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director at Peak XV Partners, Mukul Arora, Co-Managing Partner at Elevation Capital, and Sarthak Misra, Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers.