Ronnie Screwvala’s upGrad, which joined India’s unicorn club with $1.2 billion valuation in August last year, has appointed edtech unicorn Eruditus Education’s Director of Inside Sales Vikram Vyas as its Vice President-Growth, International Sales.
Vyas will be looking after Asia Pacific (Asia Pacific) as well as Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions. He will work in expanding the upGrad’s footprint and boosting its market share globally.
“We have ambitious growth plans for the APAC region, and therefore, we would need his expertise and seasoned business acumen for strengthening our foothold in the market and scaling the business.
We are living in exciting times, and his appointment is aptly timed with our ambition of becoming an integrated global higher-ed leader,” said Zubin Gandevia, Chief Executive Officer, APAC, upGrad.
Vyas has a career span of over 20 years across countries and sectors including e-commerce, banking, insurance, hospitality, telecom, and education-based clients among others.
upGrad said that Vyas has an experience across designing sales skills, using market feedback.
“His (Vyas’) experience, understanding and passion for the sector and the vision he brings to the role will be instrumental in co-creating international market strategies and taking the plunge in our leadership within this space. We are happy to welcome Vikram onboard and are excited to reach for the greater heights together,” said Saranjit Sangar, Chief Executive Officer, EMEA, upGrad.
According to Vyas’ LinkedIn profile, he is an Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode alumnus and has worked with companies including Hutchison Orange (now Vodafone Idea), Transwork International, an Aditya Birla Group firm, HSBC Bank, DCB Bank and Matrimony.com at various roles.
Vyas has a Diploma in Hotel Management from the Indian Institute of Hotel Management, Mumbai and had done an MBA from the Indian School of Business.
“This is quite a booming as well as a challenging phase for online edtech, given the economic changes, workforce realignment, and the urgent need to upskill and re-skill for professionals to stay adept in the competitive environment. I am very excited to take this role with upGrad, understand the two completely different market dynamics, and steer the brand’s growth aligned with its overall ambitions in APAC and EMEA regions,” said Vyas.
