SAN FRANCISCO (TIP): NewRocket, a San Francisco-based leading digital workflow advisor and Elite ServiceNow partner, has named Harsha Kumar, an Indian American entrepreneur, technologist and proven chief executive, as CEO. Kumar will assume the role previously held by Gary DiOrio, who will re-join the NewRocket board, the company announced Nov 11. NewRocket is backed by Gryphon Investors (“Gryphon”), a leading middle-market private equity firm.
“I’m ready to take off in (a) NewRocket !” Kumar posted on Linkedin.
“I am honored and super excited to join the NewRocket crew on our mission to be the world’s leading ServiceNow partner,” he said. “ServiceNow has established itself as the AI platform for business transformation, and I’m confident our consulting acumen and deep technical skills will enable impactful transformations for our clients. I’d like to thank Gryphon and the NewRocket leadership team for providing me this fantastic opportunity.”
Kumar, according to the release, is an entrepreneur, technologist and proven CEO with a track record of driving significant revenue and EBITDA growth, customer satisfaction, and career progression for team members.
“We are lucky to have Harsha join the team as CEO. His hands-on leadership style and knowledge of the ServiceNow space, coupled with his track record for building great companies with the best people, is a rare blend of talent,” DiOrio said. “We look forward to partnering with Harsha as we continue to build the leader in the ServiceNow ecosystem.”
Most recently, Kumar served as CEO and President of Prodapt from 2016 to 2024, establishing the company as a leading transformation partner for telecommunication companies worldwide.
In 2023, Gartner recognized Prodapt as an industry leader across America, Europe, and LATAM. Under his leadership, Prodapt raised private equity funding from Affirma Capital and received a strategic equity investment from ServiceNow.
Prior to joining Prodapt, Kumar held a number of senior leadership roles that helped establish and grow Virtusa into a leading IT consulting and transformation services firm. He oversaw the creation of advanced technology centers and led the company’s business units for Telecom & Media, Information and Entertainment, Insurance, Healthcare, and Technology industries. He was a member of Virtusa’s core leadership team as the company scaled from a small $13 million private company to a billion-dollar publicly listed company.
Kumar previously co-founded EC Cubed – a software platform company for B2B eCommerce and raised significant venture capital. As its CTO, he architected and developed a workflow engine and other components.
Paul Fipps, ServiceNow’s President, Global Industries and Strategic Growth, added, “ServiceNow is thrilled to see one of our leading pure-play partners, NewRocket, bring on a talent like Harsha Kumar. As a proven CEO and technologist in the digital workflow automation space, Harsha has developed a prior strategic relationship with ServiceNow. We are confident he will accelerate and further elevate the strategic partnership between NewRocket and ServiceNow.”
Gabe Stephenson, Deal Partner & Head of Gryphon’s Technology Solutions & Services group, noted, “We thank Gary for his leadership of NewRocket, and we feel fortunate to have someone with Harsha’s directly relevant experience joining the company as CEO at this stage. Harsha’s deep understanding of workflow software, experience scaling multiple high-growth IT services firms, and his impressive track record of building large and long-term customer relationships is an ideal fit for NewRocket. We know the talented crew at NewRocket will thrive with Harsha’s people-centered leadership.”
Tag: LinkedIn
-
Indian American entrepreneur Harsha Kumar named as the NewRocket CEO
-
Relief to thousands as US extends deadline of expiring work permit by 1.5 years
Includes those seeking green cards and spouses of H-1B visa holders
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): The Biden administration has announced an automatic extension of expiring work permits for certain categories of immigrants, including those seeking green cards and spouses of H-1B visa holders who get employment authorization cards (EAD), for a year-and-a-half. The move, announced by the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday, May 3, is likely to benefit thousands of Indian immigrants.
The extension period of up to 180 days will automatically be extended to up to 540 days from the expiration date stated on the current EADs, the Department of Homeland Security said.
“As USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) works to address the pending EAD caseloads, the agency has determined that the current 180-day automatic extension for employment authorization is currently insufficient,” said USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou. “This temporary rule will provide those non-citizens, otherwise eligible for the automatic extension, an opportunity to maintain employment and provide critical support for their families, while avoiding further disruption for US employers,” he said.
According to USCIS, non-citizens with a pending EAD renewal application whose 180-day automatic extension has lapsed and whose EAD has expired will be granted an additional period of employment authorization and EAD validity beginning May 4, 2022 and lasting up to 540 days from the expiration date of their EAD. They may resume employment if they are still within the up to 540-day automatic extension period and are otherwise eligible.
Non-citizens with a pending renewal application still covered under the 180-day automatic extension will be granted an additional extension of up to 360 days, for a total of up to 540 days past the expiration of the current EAD.
Non-citizens with a pending renewal application and a valid EAD on May 4, 2022, or who timely file an EAD renewal application before October 27, 2023, will be granted an automatic extension of up to 540 days if their EAD expires before the renewal application is processed. “The change will immediately help about 87,000 immigrants whose work authorization has lapsed or is set to in the next 30 days. Overall, the government estimates that as many as 4,20,000 immigrants renewing work permits will be protected from losing their ability to work for the duration of the policy,” Indian-American community leader Ajay Jain Bhutoria told PTI. The policy is meant to address the unprecedented backlog of 1.5 million work permit applications at the nation’s legal immigration agency, leaving tens of thousands unable to work legally and exacerbating labor shortages.
Welcoming the change in policy, Bhutoria said this is great news for employers as most companies are facing staffing issues and will now be able to keep their eligible employees.
“This policy change allows employers to continue their workers and eligible immigrants to work on expired documents for up to 540 days, rather than 180. That means even the tens of thousands of people past their 180-day window have as much as another year of work authorization as of Wednesday,” he said.
“This is the right step in the direction to reduce the visa processing backlog,” he said. For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit uscis.gov or follow on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
(Source: PTI)
-
LinkedIn working on Clubhouse-like audio networking feature
Inspired by the soaring success of invite-only audio chat app Clubhouse, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is now working on a similar app for over 740 million members in more than 200 countries.
The leading professional networking platform confirmed the move to TechCrunch, saying that it is working on an audio networking feature.
“We’re doing some early tests to create a unique audio experience connected to your professional identity,” LinkedIn said in a statement.
“We’re looking at how we can bring audio to other parts of LinkedIn such as events and groups, to give our members even more ways to connect to their community,” the company said on Tuesday.
According to LinkedIn, it will start beta testing of the new audio chat feature soon.
Alarmed at the growing popularity of Clubhouse, several tech giants have begun to a rival app and Twitter has finally started testing ‘Spaces’ on Android.