The post of a chief executive officer(CEO) is not an easy one to hold in any company. But it’s a harder job when it comes to companies establishing themselves in the startup world! The year 2017 so far has been very promising for the startup ecosystem all over the world. But at the same time, this year saw many chief executive officers and senior executives stepping down from their post because of a multitude of reasons. Here is a list of all the major top executives who had to move away from their company.
1. Vishal Sikka
The most recent departure was that of Vishal Sikka who stepped down from his position as the MD and CEO of Infosys due to malicious and personal attacks from the Infosys board. Sikka joined the company in 2014 but faced harsh criticism from founder and board member Narayana Murthy. In his resignation letter, Sikka said he could not do his job as CEO and continue to create value, while also constantly defending against unrelenting, baseless, malicious and increasingly personal attacks.
2. Gautam Mago
Gautam Mago worked as the managing director of the venture capitalist firm Sequoia Capital India for over 10 years. His announced his resignation in June and said he would slowly transition out of his role in the next couple of months after handing over his assignments. Although he hasn’t revealed his future plans yet, many media reports suggest he might start a new fund.
3. Nitin Seth
The Chief Operating Officer of Flipkart, Nitin Seth quit the ecommerce company during the initial stages of the Flipkart Snapdeal acquisition deal. Nitin cited personal reasons for leaving the organization and his resignation gave the CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy overall charge of all the key functions of the organizations. Nitin’s exit followed a long list of several senior executives leaving the company after a management overhaul.
4. Rajiv Bansal
This former chief financial officer of Ola previously worked in Infosys before quitting that company for the cab aggregator and later put in his papers, in Ola as well. Bansal became the CFO of Infosys in 2012 and quit the company in 2016 to join Bhavish Aggarwal’s Ola. Many sources reported, over the course of 12 months since Bansal joined Ola, the startup struggled to attract new investors. Bansal was also the center of another controversy that was brewing with Infosys regarding reports of discord between the company’s board and its founders led by N.R. Narayana Murthy.
5. Travis Kalanick
Possibly the most publicized departure, Travis Kalanick was forced to resign from the company he helped build from scratch. Travis, the former CEO of global taxi hailing company Uber found himself amidst a lot of controversies and was finally asked to step down by the shareholders and board members. Travis had initially taken an indefinite leave of absence from the company after losing his mother in a boating accident. But amid high pressure from investors and major scandals surrounding the company Kalanick said he agreed with the wishes of the investors so that Uber can go back to building rather than get distracted with another fight.
6. Dave McClure
In a blog post titled ‘Making Changes at 500, Co Founder of 500 Startups Christine Tsai announced the founder of business mentorship program Dave McClure was stripped of his title as the CEO of the company due to sexual harassment allegations and a subsequent investigation. According to several reports, more than two dozen women alleged they were sexually harassed by Dave McClure during interviews, meetings and via social media.