upGrad Enterprise, the corporate skilling and workforce development division of upGrad has made five strategic leadership appointments in the last three months to accelerate its expansion.
These appointments bolster the company’s capabilities and market presence across critical domains: marketing, talent acquisition and management, corporate sales optimization, technology and data-driven talent solutions, and international education marketplaces.
All five appointments have assumed offices and are based out of India.
Shirin Rai Gupta brings over a decade of B2B marketing, partnerships, and reputation management experience from Google, TrulyMadly, and other top tech firms. An alumnus of Lady Sri Ram College for Women & Warwick Business School, Rai specialises in designing innovative strategies to drive transformative impact.
She achieved success at TrulyMadly through the #BreakingStereotypes campaign, played a pivotal role in the launch of The Practice’s digital arm, and most recently led marketing for ThinkwithGoogle (India) in addition to her contributions to Google India’s Ads & Brand Marketing charters.
Outside work, she co-hosts a food podcast and supports underserved communities’ access to nutrition. At upGrad Enterprise, she’s leading the Brand & Marketing efforts to drive scale.
Mayank Manohar and Harshal Goyal join the leadership team, bringing extensive expertise in education and talent solutions.
An Amity University alum, Manohar, brings 16 years of experience in education, having navigated complex challenges at esteemed institutions like Amity University, British Council, and Career Launcher, is driving strategic expansion of the Study Abroad vertical, focusing on product adoption, market penetration, and revenue growth.
Harshal, with 12 years of expertise in global talent solutions, has successfully scaled tech staffing verticals at Randstad. He has completed executive development programs from London Business School and IIM-B. Harshal will spearhead talent solutions, utilizing AI-powered talent mapping and predictive analytics to connect corporates with tech professionals, driving market penetration and growth.
Dikshit Jain and Narasimha Jagarlapudi bring a combined wealth of expertise to drive Sales Excellence and lead the scaling of cross-functional and corporate Sales, Technical Sales Enablement, Data-Driven Sales Solutions, and Strategic Bid Management at upGrad Enterprise.
A Goa Institute of Management alumn and with over 15 years of experience in the IT industry, Dikshit has developed a deep understanding of how disruptions are transforming the Financial Services sector, having worked across brands like Capgemini, Virtusa, and Wipro, and leveraging emerging technologies such as AIML Plug-ins and GenAI use cases to drive business outcomes.
An IIT Madras and XLRI Jamshedpur alumn, Narasimha brings over a decade of experience from top-tier consulting firms, including BCG and PwC, where he successfully led initiatives in pricing, productivity improvement, sales acceleration, and strategic bid management, and drove CRM design and implementation.
Srikanth Iyengar, CEO – upGrad Enterprise, said, “We have charted out a high-growth plan for upGrad Enterprise, and these strategic appointments mark a significant segue into our next phase of growth. As our India business continues to grow significantly, we’ve been attracting interest from global organisations and MNCs organically. The arrival of these leaders perfectly complements our brand and expansion strategy, as we strengthen our focus on profitable high growth.”
“Their proven record in translating market requirements into business results, scaling operations, and delivering exceptional customer experiences makes them product makers and will accelerate our mission of establishing upGrad Enterprise as a global disruptor within corporate skilling and talent solutioning,” Iyengar said.
