After Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos elevated India head Amit Agarwal to core team of senior leaders – the S-team, Amazon India has roped in Manish Tiwary to be the Vice President of Category Management as the e-tailor looks to strengthen its reach in its India business. Tiwary will replace Samir Kumar, vice-president of category management at Amazon India, who is moving back later this year to Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, US.

An IIM-Bangalore alumnus, Tiwary is a 20-year veteran at the global FMCG major Unilever and will be responsible for Amazon India’s expansion into new categories and also exclusive partnerships. Tiwary will become one of only four people at Amazon India who holds the coveted position of vice-president. 

He headed sales at HUL before being promoted to the role of managing director, Gulf region, for Unilever. In 2016, Amazon has added quite a number of senior executives to its ranks. It recruited Sriraman Jagannathan from Citibank in January to head payments and Puneet Gupta as sales and marketing head for the fashion, food and grocery retail from online fashion retailer Jabong. Tiwary joins Amazon at a time when the online retailer is running neck and neck with rival Flipkart in the race for leadership of India’s e-commerce market, expected to grow to $60 billion by 2020 from $4.48 billion in 2014, according to UBS AG.

"As a key member of Amazon's launch team in India, Samir has contributed immensely in helping build Amazon.in as India's largest online store and delighting customers with a fast and reliable delivery experience. He has also been a key advocate of Amazon's culture, helping teams imbibe the unique Amazon Leadership Principles. We are very grateful to Samir's contribution and are excited to have Manish join the team," said the spokesperson in an emailed statement to LiveMint.