Rajnish Kumar and Mohandas Pai to step down from Byju’s Advisory Council

Rajnish Kumar and T V Mohandas Pai, who joined edtech firm Byju’s advisory council in July last year, will depart from the statutory body by the end of the next month.

According to Byju’s, Kumar and Pai have mutually decided not to renew the contractual agreement scheduled to end on June 30, 2024.

“Our engagement with the Company as advisors was always on a fixed term basis for a year. Based on our discussions with the founders, it was mutually decided that the tenure of the advisory council should not be extended. Though the formal engagement concludes, the founders and the company can always approach us for any advice. We wish the founders and the company the very best for the future,” Kumar and Pai said in a joint statement.

Pai is the former CFO and board member of IT company Infosys while Kumar served as the chairperson of the State Bank of India. During their tenure at Byju’s, the duo used to advise and mentor the company’s board and its CEO Byju Raveendran.

“Rajnish Kumar and Mohandas Pai have provided invaluable support in the past year. The ongoing litigations by a few foreign investors have delayed our plans but their advice will be relied upon in the ongoing rebuild which I am personally leading,” Byju Raveendran, founder & CEO, Think & Learn, said in the statement.

In September 2023, the company appointed Arjun Mohan as new CEO for India operations. However, Mohan also left the company last month.

Currently, founder Raveendran is looking after the company’s day-to-day functioning. During Mohan’s ouster, Byju’s also announced that it is consolidating its businesses into three key divisions – The Learning App, Online Classes and Tuition Centres, and Test-prep.