Boardroom Moves announced 79 senior leadership moves in India between 6 December 2025 and 30 October 2026. 63 of the 79 leaders (80%) joined from another organisation and 15 (19%) were promoted inside their company or group. Sales and business development (13), HR and talent (12) and business head roles (12) moved most, and technology and IT services was the busiest sector (18 moves). These counts cover the announcements Boardroom CXO tracked, not every leadership move in India.
What these numbers cover
Every count on this page is a move that Boardroom Moves announced on the Boardroom CXO LinkedIn page: a senior appointment of a leader working in India, almost always at a company in India (a few roles also cover other regions), taken from the leader's own public announcement. That is a sample of the moves we tracked, not a census of leadership hiring in India. A sector or function with more moves here means we announced more of them, which may or may not match the whole market.
Function and sector groups are read from the job title, the company's business and what the post says the role does. A move counts as a promotion only when the post says the leader was elevated or already worked at the company or its group; it counts as an outside hire when the post shows the leader arriving from another employer. One leader, Naveen Kumar Rai, moved twice in the period, so the 79 moves cover 78 people.
Leadership moves by function
Sales and business development, HR and talent, and business head roles together make up 37 of the 79 moves (47%). Finance and marketing leadership moves were fewer in this set: 3 finance and 5 marketing.
| Function | Moves | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Sales and business development | 13 | 16% |
| Business head (CBO, business unit or P&L head) | 12 | 15% |
| HR and talent (including CHRO) | 12 | 15% |
| CEO, MD and country head | 8 | 10% |
| Operations (including COO) | 7 | 9% |
| Marketing, brand and content (including CMO) | 5 | 6% |
| Supply chain and procurement | 5 | 6% |
| Technology, data and product | 5 | 6% |
| Consulting and advisory practice | 4 | 5% |
| Finance, investment and credit (including CFO) | 3 | 4% |
| Other (strategy, advisory, innovation) | 3 | 4% |
| Legal and company secretarial | 2 | 3% |
| Total | 79 | 100% |
Chief-level appointments
21 of the 79 moves (27%) carry a "Chief" or CEO title. Chief Business Officer was the most common C-suite title, ahead of COO. No Chief Technology Officer move was announced in this period.
| Title | Moves | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Chief Business Officer (CBO) | 6 | 29% |
| Chief Operating Officer (COO) | 4 | 19% |
| Chief Executive Officer (CEO) | 2 | 10% |
| Deputy CEO | 1 | 5% |
| Chief Financial Officer (CFO) | 1 | 5% |
| Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) | 1 | 5% |
| Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) | 1 | 5% |
| Chief Sales Officer (CSO) | 1 | 5% |
| Other chief titles | 4 | 19% |
| Total | 21 | 100% |
Leadership moves by sector
Technology and IT services led with 18 moves (23%), followed by banking, financial services and insurance (8) and industrial, manufacturing, auto and building materials (8).
| Sector | Moves | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Technology and IT services | 18 | 23% |
| Banking, financial services and insurance | 8 | 10% |
| Industrial, manufacturing, auto and building materials | 8 | 10% |
| Energy, power and infrastructure | 7 | 9% |
| Media, advertising, entertainment and sport | 7 | 9% |
| Consulting, audit and staffing | 5 | 6% |
| FMCG, food and agri | 5 | 6% |
| Healthcare and pharma | 5 | 6% |
| Real estate | 5 | 6% |
| E-commerce and internet platforms | 4 | 5% |
| Education, research and public bodies | 4 | 5% |
| Hospitality, travel and food service | 2 | 3% |
| Diversified group | 1 | 1% |
| Total | 79 | 100% |
Promoted inside or hired from outside
Most leaders in this set changed employer. 63 moves (80%) were outside hires and 15 (19%) were promotions inside the same company or group. 3 of the outside hires went back to a company they had worked for before.
| Move type | Moves | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Joined from another organisation | 63 | 80% |
| Promoted or moved up inside the same company or group | 15 | 19% |
| Not stated in the announcement | 1 | 1% |
| Total | 79 | 100% |
Moves by month
67 of the 79 moves were announced in 2026 and 12 in December 2025. Monthly totals follow how often the page posted, so treat a quiet month as fewer announcements, not fewer appointments.
| Month | Moves |
|---|---|
| December 2025 | 12 |
| January 2026 | 8 |
| February 2026 | 8 |
| March 2026 | 3 |
| April 2026 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 4 |
| June 2026 | 6 |
| July 2026 | 5 |
| August 2026 | 10 |
| September 2026 | 10 |
| October 2026 | 13 |
| Total | 79 |
Moves by city
Most announcements do not name a city: 74 of the 79 posts give none. Where a post does name the city of the role, it was Pune (2), Delhi (1), Hyderabad (1), Indore (1). That is too few to rank cities.
October 2026: the monthly report
The Boardroom Moves desk also counts every senior move it records in a month, including leaders who were not featured. The October 2026 report tracked 36 senior leadership moves announced between 17 October and 27 October 2026. Marketing and brand roles moved most (13, 36%), and technology and IT services had the most appointments (9). The report uses its own groups and overlaps with the moves above, so do not add the two sets together.
| Function | Moves | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing and brand | 13 | 36% |
| Business and growth heads | 11 | 31% |
| Sales and business development | 5 | 14% |
| CEO and MD | 2 | 6% |
| Operations | 2 | 6% |
| Other | 1 | 3% |
| Retail and merchandising | 1 | 3% |
| Strategy | 1 | 3% |
| Total | 36 | 100% |
| Sector | Moves | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Technology and IT services | 9 | 25% |
| Media, advertising and entertainment | 5 | 14% |
| Retail, fashion and consumer brands | 5 | 14% |
| FMCG, food and agri | 4 | 11% |
| Industrial, auto, energy and telecom | 4 | 11% |
| Financial services | 3 | 8% |
| Other B2B and services | 3 | 8% |
| Real estate | 2 | 6% |
| Healthcare and pharma | 1 | 3% |
| Total | 36 | 100% |
The wider market: senior hiring demand in India
For a view of the whole market rather than the moves we tracked, Naukri JobSpeak, October 2026 (Info Edge) measures new white-collar job postings on Naukri.com. It reported that hiring grew 14% year on year in October 2026, and that hiring for professionals with more than 16 years of experience grew 22%, led by auto and FMCG. It also showed gems and jewellery hiring up 21% year on year. These are job postings, not appointments, so they show demand for senior people rather than who moved.
Download the data
Download the 79 moves as CSV: one row per move with the date, leader, title, company, function group, sector group, city where named, move type and the Boardroom Moves page. You may reuse the counts with a link to this page. To correct an entry, write to [email protected].
Sources
- Boardroom CXO, Boardroom Moves, announcements from 6 December 2025 to 30 October 2026
- Boardroom CXO, Senior leadership moves in India: October 2026 (CSV)
- Info Edge, Naukri JobSpeak report, October 2026
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