Tata Digital’s Naveen Tahilyani quits in just a year after becoming CEO

Naveen Tahilyani, chief executive officer of Tata Digital

Naveen Tahilyani, chief executive officer of Tata Digital, is set to depart from the top job he took up just over a year ago. Tahilyani will move out of his role on June 30 and return to the insurance sector where he has spent over 10 years.

Tahilyani will leave the Tata group and join UK-based asset management firm Prudential Plc as the regional CEO for India, Africa, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, with additional responsibility of the health vertical, the firm said in a statement.

Appointed in February last year, Tahilyani was picked by Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran to steady the ship and steer Tata Digital, an arm of the sprawling conglomerate that houses its super app Tata Neu, apart from its acquired consumer internet businesses such as online grocer BigBasket and online pharmacy 1mg, towards profitability.

As CEO, Tahilyani had begun work and significantly improved the financials from where they were earlier during Pratik Pal’s tenure. In fact, in his first-ever town hall with employees he focussed on profitability and technology.

However, with the abrupt and sudden exit of Tahilyani, it remains to be seen what happens to the unfinished goal of turning Tata Digital profitable.

The group is yet to decide on Tahilyani’s successor.

An alumnus of IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad, Tahilyani spent over 17 years at consulting firm McKinsey before joining Tata AIA Life Insurance in 2015. He briefly joined Axis Bank in 2020 before being roped in again by Tata AIA later that year.

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During his tenure, Tahilyani made several appointments at the top deck. He hired former Amazon executive Vinay Vaidya as Tata Digital’s CTO and also brought in former Swiggy and Amazon executive Jairaj Sathyanarayana as the chief data and AI officer.

Satyam Mehra as chief strategy officer, also a former Zomato employee, was another appointment Tahilyani made during his short stint.

How the unit will fare from here and who will helm it remains to be seen. The departure comes while BigBasket is hoping for additional funds from Tata Digital to up the ante on quick commerce and more.