Byju's, the world's most-valued edtech startup, roped in top Vedanta executive Ajay Goel as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) on April 4, more than a year after its previous CFO PV Rao resigned.
This came as a significant move for the company, which has delayed filing its FY22 (2021-22) results for more than six months.
Here are 10 points that cover everything you need to know about Goel, who is taking over Byju's’ long-vacant CFO position:
- Goel has 21 years of industry experience, leading finance and operation roles for companies across sectors, including Vedanta, Diageo, General Electric (GE), Coca-Cola, and Nestle.
- In his previous role, Goel was working as Group CFO (Acting) of Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Resources. In March 2021, he joined Vedanta as its Group Deputy CFO before being promoted to Group CFO (Acting) in October of the same year.
- Before Vedanta, he worked with Diageo as Executive Vice President & Finance Controller, GE as Executive Vice President & Finance Controller, Coca-Cola as Lead Finance Manager, and Nestle as Regional Finance Manager.
- The new CFO of Byju's brings expertise in various areas such as building high-performing teams, strategic finance, business partnering and decision support, leading mergers and acquisitions, capital restructuring, funding strategy, taxation, and dealing with the Board and Audit Committee.
- Goel is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and Company Secretary (CS) with a single-digit national rank in both CA and CS.
- Goel graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai in 1997 with a Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) degree in Accounting and Business/Management.
- In his new role, Goel will strengthen the company's financial operations, long-term business strategies, and path to profitability, Byju’s said.
- Goel will be responsible for overseeing Byju's financial strategy and management, as well as working closely with the founders and senior leadership on strategy development, capital planning, and financial analysis, the company said.
- Goel's appointment comes just a few months after the company renegotiated terms with its creditors, which included providing monthly business updates and hiring a CFO.
- Goel’s joining also comes at a time when Byju's reportedly offered to increase the rate of interest on its $1.2 billion term loan B (TLB) raised from a clutch of investors recently, as part of renegotiating its debt-financing arrangements.
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