Indian Pipped To Be The Next CEO Of Groupon
Bangalore: After Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason got fired from his own company last week, the recent internal reports point towards the possibility of an Indian heading the billion dollar ‘deal of the day’ company this time.
The strongest candidate for the CEO post is Kalyanaraman Srinivasan, the present Chief Operating Officer of Groupon.
Srinivan, 43 who hails from Tirunelveli district, completed his graduation in engineering from Guindy, Chennai. He had previously headed technology teams at eBay, Amazon and Walmart and joined Groupon last year as a senior Vice President, soon ascending to the position of COO.
After handling Groupon’s operations outside U.S. and driving changes within the company, he was made the COO of it. He also shifted customer support operations from Chicago to Chennai.
However, details about Srinivasan were not disclosed by the company, but what awaits him is the considerable fall in share by 78 percent that needs close monitoring. Groupon has seen such a fall since its initial public offering in November 2011, which managed to raise about $700million (
3800 crore) from its investors despite its $410 million loss in the previous year.
Along with his brilliance at Groupon, Srinivasan had also founded GlobalScholar.com in 2006, which was sold to a U.S. based firm in 2010 for $140 million. He was also in the founding team for online retailer Drugstore.com, and served as its CEO from 2001 to 2004.
Apart from Srinivasan other potential candidates for the position also include Finance Chief - Jason Child and senior Vice President for product management – Jeff Holden who could take the lead.
