Amex India chief to join Reliance Retail

MUMBAI: KL Muralidhara, V-P & country head of American Express is joining Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail next month. Forty-four-year old Muralidhara, who has been with Amex for the last eight-and-half-years, five of which have been as country head in India, will be leading the financial services and travel business at Reliance.
Designated CEO Muralidhara, a mechanical engineer and XLRI graduate who started his career with Citibank will be based in Mumbai and drive yet-to-be-launched businesses.While Reliance has managed to nab well-known retail professionals like Gunender Kapur of HLL, Raghu Pillai from Pantaloon, Bijou Kurian from Titan, Rajeev Karwal from Electrolux and Nunu Khanna from Bombay Dyeing, this is the first senior finance professional to have been poached and is a clear indication of the importance financial services are expected to play in Reliance's ambitious retail strategy.
While specific details are hard to come by, with Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani only hinting at the entry into travel services at the AGM on Tuesday, industry sources say that Reliance's strategy will be modelled on international retailers like Tesco which has everything ranging from credit cards, loyalty programmes, travel services, home and car insurance and an assortment of savings products. Muralidhara not available for comment.
Muralidhara's appointment comes at a time when the country's largest retailer, Future Group (formerly Pantaloon) has announced plans to tap savings of consumers wallet. It has forayed into a variety of financial services ranging from consumer and retail fund, micro-finance, marketing and distribution of financial products to private equity. It has also put together a team of professionals.