Amit Agarwal, Amazon’s SVP for Emerging Markets, today announced in an internal email that Samir Kumar will take on the responsibility to lead India as its Country Manager, in addition to his current charter of leading Amazon’s consumer businesses in the Middle East, South Africa and Turkey.
Samir, who joined Amazon in 1999, was a part of the original team that planned and launched Amazon.in in 2013.
With this change, the current Amazon.in leadership team of Saurabh Srivastava (Categories), Harsh Goyal (Everyday Essentials), Amit Nanda (Marketplace), and Aastha Jain (Growth Initiatives) will now report to Samir. Kishore Thota (Emerging Markets Shopping Experience) will report to Amit directly.
Samir is working closely with Manish Tiwary on the transition, and will assume operational responsibilities for India starting October 1.
Commenting on the transition, Amit Agarwal, SVP for Emerging Markets, said: “I am deeply appreciative of Manish’s leadership in steering Amazon.in to become the de facto starting point for Indians to buy and sell anything online. I wish him the best for his next chapter.”
India remains an important priority for Amazon, and I am super excited about the opportunity ahead as we continue to transform lives and livelihoods. We have a strong local leadership bench and, along with Samir’s experiences across Emerging Markets, I am even more optimistic about our future plans to deliver for customers and the business in India.
