Why ServiceNow’s new MD and GVP Kulmeet Bawa is key to its enterprise and GCC play in India

His track record in scaling enterprise platforms and closing large deals matches ServiceNow’s India ambitions.

ServiceNow has appointed Kulmeet Bawa as managing director (MD) and group vice president (GVP) for India and SAARC, tasking him with leading the company’s next phase of growth across one of its key markets.

Based in New Delhi, Bawa will oversee ServiceNow’s business operations across India and the SAARC region, with the appointment set to take effect from April 6, 2026.

He will be responsible for accelerating growth, strengthening customer relationships and expanding the company's presence in digital transformation across the region, a mandate that includes scaling enterprise adoption of ServiceNow's platform and deepening engagement with customers and partners.

The appointment comes as ServiceNow sharpens its focus on India not just as a commercial opportunity, but as the geography where much of its global product ambition is being built.

The company is positioning the region as a critical engine for enterprise adoption of AI-led workflows.

The appointment comes as ServiceNow continues to see strong growth globally, with full-year 2025 subscription revenue reaching $12.883 billion, up 21 percent year over year. Asia Pacific remains a key growth region for the company.

A region growing at that pace does not get a routine appointment, it gets someone who has operated at global CRO level and knows how to convert momentum into durable enterprise contracts.

ServiceNow’s president, APAC, Adrian Johnston, said the company is delighted to welcome Kulmeet to lead India and SAARC business into its next phase of growth.

India is more than a growth market for ServiceNow, it is a critical engine for the company’s global ambitions.

“Kulmeet's rare combination of global CRO experience, deep regional expertise, and the discipline forged through military service makes him uniquely positioned to drive that mission forward,” Johnston added.

The hire that makes strategic sense

Bawa brings over two decades of experience across enterprise technology and SaaS.

He joins ServiceNow from SAP, where he most recently served as global chief revenue officer, a role he earned after running SAP India as president and managing director from 2020.

At the time of his elevation to a global role, SAP said, “A technology leader with two decades of experience across Asia, Bawa joined SAP India in 2020. Under his leadership SAP India became one of the company’s fastest-growing global markets, with a focus on some of the subcontinent’s most transformative organisations, including the 50 Indian unicorns which run on SAP today.”

He has also served as president and managing director for South Asia at Adobe, where he led regional growth and enterprise expansion.

His move also carries a competitive dimension. SAP and ServiceNow are increasingly in the same enterprise conversations, both competing to be the AI-powered workflow layer running underneath large organisations.

Bringing in the executive who scaled SAP India and then ran SAP's global cloud and AI revenue strategy is a pointed signal about where ServiceNow intends to compete, and with whom, across this market.

The GCC angle sharpens that logic further. India has emerged as the world's dominant hub for Global Capability Centers, and ServiceNow has been building infrastructure around that reality.

In November 2025, ANSR - backed by ServiceNow's $150 million Ecosystem Ventures fund - launched 1Hub, an AI-powered GCC command and control platform developed in collaboration with ServiceNow, purpose-built for the $50 billion-plus GCC market.

Positioned by ANSR as the world's first platform of its kind, 1Hub had already onboarded over 10,000 users at the time of launch. It signals how rapidly ServiceNow is embedding itself as the operational backbone of enterprise India's GCC boom.

As multinationals race to establish and scale their India GCCs, ServiceNow is positioning its platform as the orchestration layer running beneath them, and Bawa's track record of closing at the top of the enterprise stack makes him the natural choice to turn that infrastructure into revenue.

Bawa said he looks forward to working with customers and partners to drive business outcomes and expand the company's presence across the region.

"India sits at the heart of ServiceNow's global strategy, and I look forward to helping enterprises unlock the full value of the platform," he said.