Polaris Software Lab inducts two new faces

Chennai: Polaris Software Lab has inducted Harpal Dugal (former CEO, Standard Chartered Bank) and Suren Khirwadkar (former country marketing director, Citibank) into its leadership team to accelerate the companys growth. Dugal is joining as director (strategic initiatives), while Khirwadkar will be joining as director (marketing and sales). These inductions emphasise the strategic broad-basing of the Polaris top management team.

Speaking about the inductions, Polaris Software Lab chairman and CEO Arun Jain says: In the last 15 months, Polaris has transformed itself from servicing demands to creating demands in the global marketplace. We prepared ourselves for the next growth-orbit shift by redesigning the organisational DNA and mapping the organisations needs with the global scenario. With Harpal and Suren coming on our board, Polaris now has the best leadership in place to steer it on to the next platform of growth.

Dugal brings with him global expertise across banking domains. He has held several positions of increased responsibility with Citibank - from 1980 through 1997. This included being the retail banking head of Citibank-Indonesia in 1989 and the credit cards business head of Citibank-Philippines in 1993, before his return to India to eventually lead Standard Chartered in 2000. He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Khirwadkar headed Citibanks business in Saudi Arabia where he was the country marketing director and consumer assets business manager. Khiwadkar comes with marketing and sales experience from fast-moving consumer group companies like Hindustan Lever, Colgate-Palmolive and Britannia Industries. He joined Citibank in 1988 and was the marketing director and business manager with Citibank in India, the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.