Tech Mahindra appoints former TCS exec to head tech, media biz

Tech Mahindra, India’s fifth largest technology services provider, has appointed former Tata Consultancy Services executive Sumit Kumar Popli to head its Technology, Media and Entertainment (TME) vertical, effective October 19.

Popli, who has been designated as president of the TME strategic business unit at TechM, had spent more than 22 years at TCS where he last served as vice-president and global head of the hardware and consumer technology industry (computer platforms), the company said in a recent regulatory filing. After leaving TCS, he had an over two-year stint at Deloitte in its technology, media and telecom (TMT) practice.

TME accounted for 14.3% of TechM’s revenue of $1.6 billion in the quarter ended September 30, growing 5.7% sequentially and 2.4% from a year earlier.


Popli is the third senior executive with experience at top-tier firms that TechM hired this year.

Earlier this year, TCS former chief marketing officer Rajashree R was hired as TechM’s chief growth officer for the strategic verticals in the Americas. Richard Lobo, a former chief human resources officer at Infosys, took over as the chief people officer at TechM in January.

Chief executive and managing director Mohit Joshi has been making changes to the top management since TechM announced his appointment in March 2023 to head the company. Joshi officially took charge in December 2023 following the retirement of long-time CEO and MD CP Gurnani.

In August 2023, chief operating officer Atul Soneja joined the company from a small-tier firm, CitiusTech. Before CitiusTech, Suneja was with Infosys for several years.

A few senior executives of TechM also resigned last year. Dhanashree Bhat, who was chief delivery officer of the communications, media and telecom group, quit to join as COO at Persistent Systems while Manish Vyas, who headed the communications vertical, joined Prodapt as its MD and CEO.