ReNew Power (ReNew), a renewable energy company, announced it has appointed Kedar Upadhye as Group CFO, Vikash Jain as Global General Counsel and Vikram Kapur as Chief Growth Officer.
The leadership hires come as ReNew’s gross total portfolio jumped nearly 20% to ~12.1 GW at the end of April from 10.2 GW at the beginning of 2022. ReNew continues to lead the industry as India’s top utility-scale solar developer in 2021, according to Mercom India, the statement said.
Kedar Upadhye comes with over 22 years of diverse and global experience. Prior to joining ReNew, he was President and Global CFO, Cipla, one of India’s largest publicly traded pharmaceutical companies, with a market cap of approximately $US 9.8 billion. As CFO at Cipla, he headed the global finance and information technology functions and worked across multiple geographies, including the US. His leadership experience includes core financial reporting, business partnership, business model realignment & cost optimization, corporate finance, and global investor relations, apart from implementing several high-impact, cross-functional transformational projects.
Before Cipla, he was VP and Head, Finance and Investor Relations for NYSE-listed Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories. Kedar has also held leadership roles at PepsiCo and Thermax. He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and is a qualified Company Secretary, as well as a Cost Accountant.
“I am excited to join the inspiring growth journey at ReNew when it is in the process of expanding its footprint and impact multi-fold. I aspire to be a strong partner for value creation, stakeholder delight, and best-in-class governance at ReNew,” Kedar said.
Vikash Jain comes with rich and varied international experience of over 26 years in compliance, governance, and litigation. In his last role, he was Group General Counsel for Vedanta Resources Limited, which included being General Counsel for Cairn Oil & Gas. Vikash has also held leadership roles at Transocean, Jubilant Energy, and Hindustan Oil Exploration Company. He is an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad; holds an LLB from VSSD College, Kanpur; and is a qualified Company Secretary, as well as a Cost and Works Accountant.
Speaking about his appointment, Vikash said: “I am excited to join the ReNew family. I look forward to contributing to its inspiring growth journey.”
Vikram Kapur joins in the newly created Chief Growth Officer role to help build new businesses such as green hydrogen and carbon markets, as well as international partnerships to enable the core and nascent businesses. Prior to joining ReNew, he spent 17 years at McKinsey & Company, where he was a senior partner leading the energy and material practice. He also was at Unilever for over four years. Vikram holds an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and a B. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
On his new role at ReNew, Vikram said: “I am really excited to join ReNew Power, which is at the forefront of driving the green energy transition in India. There are many new areas of growth such as green hydrogen and carbon markets and I look forward to building these businesses and contributing to the next phase of the company’s expansion.”
All three leaders will report to Sumant Sinha, Chairman and CEO, ReNew.
Speaking on the appointments, Sumant said: “I am delighted to welcome Kedar, Vikash, and Vikram, whose recognized professional calibre, global expertise, and strategic insights will significantly add to our leadership capabilities as we capitalize on the strong growth opportunity across the clean energy spectrum to help India meet its climate goals.”
