Ex-UpGrad chief Arjun Mohan to be Byju’s next India CEO

livemint.com:

MUMBAI : Byju’s has named Arjun Mohan as the chief executive officer (CEO) of its India operations, succeeding Mrinal Mohit, a founding employee of the Bengaluru-based edtech startup. Mohan assumes the role at a time when the embattled online tutor is trying to monetize non-core assets to repay loans. The group has put two of its businesses—reading platform Epic and higher education platform Great Learning—on the block to pay off a $1.2 billion loan raised in November 2021.

Byju’s has been facing scrutiny for corporate governance issues from lenders and investors, including Prosus, which held a board seat until June. Prosus’s representative on Byju’s board resigned, citing concerns that, despite rapid growth, the company’s reporting and governance structures had not evolved sufficiently for a company of that scale. “Despite repeated efforts from our director, executive leadership at Byju’s regularly disregarded advice and recommendations relating to strategic, operational, legal and corporate governance matters.

The decision for our director to step down from the Byju’s board was taken after it became clear that he was unable to fulfil his fiduciary duty to serve the long-term interests of the company and its stakeholders," the statement said. Mohan has a formidable task ahead of him, including the delicate balancing of multiple issues amid significantly slower growth in the edtech sector in the post-pandemic era. He is the former UpGrad India CEO and Byju’s former chief business officer.