Nitin Bawankule has been appointed as Head of Enterprise Sales, India at OpenAI, with the role set to begin in mid May 2026. In this position, he will lead enterprise sales efforts in the country, working with businesses across sectors to scale AI adoption, move organisations from pilot projects to full deployment, and integrate AI into core workflows to improve productivity, decision making, and long term business outcomes.
Bawankule announced the appointment through a post on LinkedIn.
He joins OpenAI after a tenure at Amazon Web Services, where he served as Director – Telco, Media, Gametech, Auto, Manufacturing, Retail CPG, Travel, Logistics, and Healthcare from June 2024 to present, following a brief stint as Director and Head – Telco, Media Entertainment and Gametech from January 2024 to June 2024. Prior to that, he was Director and Head – Digital Native Business, AWS India and South Asia from April 2022 to January 2024.
Earlier, he worked at The Walt Disney Company as Head Ad Sales from October 2019 to April 2022, where he led ad revenue across television and digital platforms including Disney+ Hotstar. Before that, he spent over eight years at Google, serving as Country Director Google Cloud from May 2018 to October 2019 and as Industry Director from July 2011 to April 2018, working across sectors including ecommerce, retail, technology, education, and government.
His earlier experience includes multiple leadership roles at Dell between August 2005 and June 2011, including Director Asia Pacific and Japan from August 2010 to June 2011, Sales Director India from August 2008 to August 2010, Director Software and Peripherals from November 2006 to July 2008, and Regional Sales Manager from August 2005 to October 2006.
He also worked at Motorola as Regional Sales Manager from January 2002 to January 2005, at Satyam Computer Services as Senior Consultant from January 2000 to January 2002, at Whirlpool Corporation as Business Manager Maharashtra from January 1998 to January 2000, and at Godrej as Area Manager from January 1994 to January 1998.
