Chief Digital Officer Nalla Karunanithy bids adieu to Majid Al Futtaim Retail

Nalla Karunanithy has departed Majid Al Futtaim Retail where he served as Chief Digital Officer. 

In a LInkedIn post, he said: “After 3+ long and great years, I bid adieu to Majid Al Futtaim - Retail to pursue my next adventure.”

“Goodbyes are hard. The mixed feeling l’m having as if I just dropped off my kid at college. I am filled with pride and some inexplicable melancholy at the same time.”

He added: “In the last 3+ years, midst of the pandemic, we scaled our digital commerce offering to 12+ countries & grew by 200x, with over 220+ e-commerce facilities, along the way launched the region’s first three fully automated grocery dark stores.”

“And in becoming region’s leading omnichannel retailer with over 470+ stores across 17 markets, region’s first unmanned store (Carrefour City+), and scaling (Mobile) Scan & Go to over 155+ stores with NPS over 60.”

“No mean feat against well funded competition in a diverse & fragmented market. I unlearned, learned and relearned many things during these 3+ years.”

Karunanithy signed off by thanking Hani Weiss, CEO at Majid Al Futtaim Retail, “for the opportunity and always having my back. Thanks to my retail executive colleagues for a great fun along the way. And thanks MAF Retail Board for the guidance and support.”

“To my global omnichannel operations team & CORP HO team, I send virtual hugs and you have a friend for life. To every MAFer, thank you for the great journey. To everyone else, say continue to watch the space from MAF Retail team’s great work.”

On his next move, Karunanithy told RTIH he was building “a new digital B2B and B2C marketplace ecosystem in the MENA region.”

“Primarily to rapidly accelerate modernisation of the traditional trades. A new digital tech commerce company from ground up to be the next GoJek or Grab of the region.”

Majid Al Futtaim Retail did not respond to our request for comment on the new Chief Digital Officer.