SHRM celebrates 75 years of making a positive difference towards ensuring better workplaces and a better world.
The 12th edition of the SHRM India Annual Conference is where leaders converge to explore vital topics impacting the future of work.
A positive impact begins with a vision, connections, commitment, and access to the right resources. Designed to create an ecosystem to lead and drive change, curated experiences to challenge the status quo, drive innovation and envision the future that awaits you at #SHRMIAC23.
All aboard! Join the Drive for Change.
Theme based sessions for a future-forward focus
6 content tracks including Workplace Culture, Leadership, Wellbeing & Strategy
Hands-on learning with practical takeaways
Acquire new skills and explore new hobbies to help you in your holistic wellbeing journey
Masterclasses, Lightning Talks, Debates, Spotlights and Discussions for all-round knowledge
Network with fellow-leaders and engage in enriching conversations for varied perspectives
G20 Sherpa, Government of India
Amitabh Kant is presently India’s G20 Sherpa. The G20 or the Group of Twenty is a forum where policymakers of industrialized and developing economies meet to discuss key issues in the global economy. The G20 countries account for 85% of global GDP, 75% of world trade and about two-thirds of the world’s population.
Amitabh Kant is a governance reformer and a public policy change agent for India, having driven key reforms and initiatives during his tenure as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) (2016-2022) and the Secretary of the Department for Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) (2014-2016), Government of India. He has been a key driver of flagship national initiatives such as Startup India, Make in India, Incredible India, Kerala: God’s Own Country and the Aspirational Districts Program. These initiatives have repositioned India and Kerala and have widely been recognized as transformational.
Recognitions
• Economic Times Policy Change Agent of the Year Award
• Bloomberg TV Personality of the year Award
• NDTV Administrator of the year Award
• Distinguished Fellowship of the Institute of Directors.
• He is the recipient of One Globe Award-2016 for leadership in Transforming Governance for the 21st Century.
• He is also the recipient of Sir Edmund Hillary Fellowship awarded by the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
• India Today's High & Mighty rankings of 2019 featured Kant as one of the most powerful people in India under the category of "The Supercrats - India's Top Bureaucrats".
Conference Chair SHRM IAC 23 & Operating Partner, Advent International Private Equity
D. Shivakumar, or Shiv as he is popularly known, is a Bangalore born leader and a management thinker.
He is currently Operating Partner at Advent International Private Equity. Previously, Shiv has been Group Executive President, Corporate Strategy at Aditya Birla Group, and Chairperson & Chief Executive Officer at PepsiCo Holdings Private Limited, India. Prior to that he was CEO for emerging markets at Nokia.
Shiv started his career as a management trainee in the Consumer Products Division at Hindustan Ciba Geigy before shifting to Hindustan Unilever Limited where he spent 19 years in sales, marketing and general management positions. He moved to Philips, India as Chief Executive Officer of the consumer electronics division in 2003.
Shiv joined Nokia in 2006 as the Managing Director, India. Under his management, Nokia built its entire services portfolio, including Nokia Life Tools. He was also instrumental in pushing low-cost mobile devices across rural India; making Nokia a dominant brand in India. He is credited for driving Nokia’s brand from No. 71 to No. 1 in the country. He was instrumental in making Nokia one of the top most trusted brands. Shiv moved as Sr. Vice President, Emerging Markets (India, Middle East, Africa) in 2011. This market accounts for 40% of Nokia’s global business and comprises of around 90 countries. His contribution during this time have become case studies at Harvard University, ISB and other Ivy League Institutes.
In 2013, Shivakumar was appointed as the Chairperson & CEO of PepsiCo Holdings Private Limited, India where he managed brand portfolios across beverages, snacks and nutrition. He has been the driving force in bringing PepsiCo’s nutrition portfolio to the forefront with new launches under the Quaker and Tropicana brands. He is known for being the key driver for portfolio transformation and deepen consumer engagement with flagship brands. Apart from overseeing India operations, he also managed PepsiCo’s franchise business across Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
As of January 2018, Shivakumar has joined Aditya Birla Group as the Group Executive President, Corporate Strategy. Aditya Birla Group is one of the largest Indian conglomerates with businesses spread across telecommunications, cement, chemicals, mining, textiles, financial services, retail and e-commerce, among others, in 36 countries.
CEO, SHRM India, APAC & MENA
Achal Khanna is the CEO for SHRM India, APAC & MENA. SHRM India is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), which is the world’s largest association devoted to human resource management with more than 3,00,000 HR and business executive members in 165 countries.
Achal is responsible for leading the India operations of SHRM, as well as Asia Pacific operations including Middle-East. She serves on the global SHRM Leadership Team and is responsible for building the brand, expanding its business and developing professional relationships with government agencies, and other HR and business associations in the region.
Achal has over 30 years of work experience. Prior to joining SHRM, she was Managing Director for Kelly India operations; Vice President for GE; and Country Manager for Polaroid India. She has also worked with Dupont, ITC and Cosmo Group in various capacities.
She is a recipient of the “Best Women Executive in India” award.
Achal holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics; a Master’s Degree in English Literature and she is an MBA from Delhi.
Business Leader & Co-Founder, Akasa Air
Aditya Ghosh is a Business Leader and Co-Founder of Akasa Air.
Aditya is currently a Member of the Board of Directors at Akasa Air, OYO Hotels & Homes, Turner Morrison, GreenCell Mobility, a pan-India shared electric mobility player, Hygienic Research Institute Private Limited (HRIPL), a prominent Indian beauty and personal care products company and Ashoka University. He is also an Independent Director at Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) International Airport and a member of Condé Nast Traveler's First-Ever Global Advisory Board.
He is the Chairperson of the Social Enterprise Central body of SEWA. SEWA is a member-based organisation of poor self-employed women from the unorganized sector. He is an avid supporter and ally of the LGBTQ community and a Board Member of Tweet Foundation (Trans Welfare Equity & Empowerment Trust), a community-based organisation, working for Rights, Help, and Health Services for Transgenders in India. He is also a Member of the CII National Committee and chairman of the CII National Committee on Skill Development & Livelihood focusing on key areas such as increasing employment and employability, creating an inclusive workforce, policy advocacy, job creation and entrepreneurship, and international mobility of skilled Indians.
He is one of the Founders of Ashoka University and a Member Circle of Sponsors where he is actively involved with and heads the Service Excellence Committee.
Formerly, he was the President & Wholetime Director of IndiGo for ten years where he was instrumental in turning the airline into the largest and most profitable airline in India, and also one of the fastest-growing low-cost carriers in the world. Prior to becoming a Board Member at OYO, he was also the CEO of OYO Hotels and Homes South Asia.
Aditya is a World Economic Forum-Young Global Leader and has been recognised as Fortune 40 under 40 Globally and Fortune India 40 under 40 three years in a row; He is a Mentor/Coach to various business leaders. Aditya is a key supporter of the start-up world and has made multiple investments in consumer-facing businesses in the spheres of food and beverages, services and health, and wellness. Through his investment arm Homage Ventures, he has invested in companies such as Blue Tokai, an indigenous coffee roaster; Wholsum Foods, a packaged food company focussing on healthy and affordable products made from super grains; and Caterland UK, Chourangi, a fine dining restaurant in London. Aditya has also invested in Genepath Diagnostics, a start-up in the molecular genetics space. He is a Strategic Advisor to the founders of various unicorns and early-stage start-ups.
His other key investments include CreditEnable, an award-winning AI-driven Fintech company based out of the UK, and is also a Member of its Global Advisory Board, SpeakIn, a first-of-its-kind expert platform of Asian expertise, Vsync, a brand and digital consultancy, Juggernaut, an aspiring world-class Indian publishing company trying to redefine reading and writing for the digital age and Ladies Who Lead, a members-only platform for India’s top and emerging Women Leaders and Chourangi, a fine-dining restaurant in London. Aditya was originally a lawyer by training and is one of the rare examples of a Professional Business Leader who did not have a management degree.
Aditya is now an alum of the Harvard Business School, having successfully completed HBS’
coveted and flagship Advanced Management Program (AMP). Aditya Ghosh was conferred with Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite by the Republic of France in June 2023, for his contribution in the field of business and philanthropy & for strengthening Indo-French relations.
Promoter & Executive Vice Chairman, Info Edge
Sanjeev Bikhchandani is the Founder of Info Edge India Ltd. - the company that owns Naukri.com, India’s leading job site. It also owns 99acres.com, Jeevansathi.com and Shiksha.com. In addition it has invested in approximately fifty start-ups including Zomato, Policybazaar, Shopkirana, Ustraa, Gramophone, Bijnis, Shipsy and Dotpe.
Sanjeev schooled at St. Columba’s School in New Delhi. He graduated in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University and began his career working in advertising with Lintas. After working for three years he did his post-graduation from IIM Ahmedabad in 1989 and joined the consumer marketing firm HMM Ltd.(now called Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd.). He quit his job for entrepreneurship eighteen months later and co-founded Info Edge.
For the first seven years as an entrepreneur, Sanjeev drifted and did a number of small businesses - from salary surveys to databases, to feasibility studies, to training. For a brief period, he was the Consulting Editor of Avenues – the careers supplement of ‘The Pioneer’ newspaper.
In 1997, Info Edge launched Naukri.com and transformed itself into an Internet company. Starting off from a servant quarter above a garage and with seed capital of two thousand rupees, the company grew and attracted investment from leading venture capitalists. It was the first Internet company to list on Indian stock exchanges. Today Info Edge employs over 4500 people and has a market capitalization of over USD 5 billion.
Sanjeev is active in various industry forums and is a contributor to the entrepreneurship ecosystem. He has served as the President of the Delhi chapter of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). He has also served as a member of the Global Board of Trustees of TiE.
He serves as a Member of the Council of Management of All India Management Association. He has been Chair of the Internet Council of NASSCOM. He has also served on the Venture Capital Investment Committee for the SIDBI Fund of Funds for startups. Sanjeev is a member of the Board of the CIIE Initiatives at IIM Ahmedabad. He is also a member of the National Startup Advisory Council.
Apart from this, Sanjeev is also engaged in philanthropy. He is a founding trustee of Ashoka University. He is a member of the Board of Chintan - a not for profit organization that works with waste pickers in Delhi. He supports 1947 Partition Archive – a not for profit that is building an oral history archive consisting of video interviews of people who experienced partition. He also supports several other non-profit organisations.
Sanjeev has received several awards and honours.
He received the “Ernst and Young – Entrepreneur of the Year” award in 2008 for Business Transformation. Sanjeev also won the Dataquest Pathbreaker Award & the Teacher’s Achievement Award for Business in the same year. In 2011, he was conferred the Distinguished Alumnus award by IIM Ahmedabad and in 2012 he was honoured with the CF Andrews Distinguished Alumnus award by St. Stephen’s College. He is the recipient of the Lakshmipat Singhania – IIM Lucknow National Leadership Award, as Young Leader in the Business Category for the year 2012. In April 2017, Outlook Magazine selected him as one of India’s fifty greatest CEOs ever. In 2019, he received Lifetime Achievement Award in IT given by the Financial Express. He was honoured with the Pride of India Award 2021 for Lifetime Achievement from Chiratae Ventures. In December 2021 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Amity University. In January 2022 he received ET Start-Up Awards 2021 in the category Midas Touch. Recently he was honoured with North Star Award 2022 by Old Columbans Association.
Sanjeev was conferred with the Padma Shri Award 2020.
Chairperson, Excellence Enablers Private Limited
Damodaran has held a number of important positions in the Central and State Governments and in India’s financial sector, including Chairman, Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Chairman, Unit Trust of India (UTI), Chairman, Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), Chief Secretary, Government of Tripura. While at SEBI, he was elected Chairman of the 80 member Emerging Markets Committee of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions.
After successful stints at UTI and IDBI, where he successfully led the turnaround efforts, and at SEBI where he introduced improved corporate governance practices, he has set up Excellence Enablers Private Limited (EEPL), a Corporate Governance and Board Advisory consultancy firm. His pioneering role in promoting Corporate Governance in India invests EEPL with an experience-based leadership role in corporate governance advisory work. In addition, he is presently a consultant, advisor, coach and mentor. He is an Independent Director on the Boards of Larsen & Toubro and Biocon, and was till recently an Independent Director on the Boards of Tech Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp and CRISIL. He is a Nominee Director on the Boards of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company. He sits on the Advisory Boards of some foreign entities too. He was the founder Chairman of the Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli. He was the Chairman of Ministry of Corporate Affairs Committee for Reforming the Regulatory Environment for doing Business in India and Chairman of Reserve Bank of India’s Committee on Customer Service in Banks.
CHRO, SHRM
Jim Link is an Atlanta-based business consultant and former Fortune 500 executive specializing in equipping leaders with the tools needed to build best-in-class, inclusive workplaces that drive revenue and profitability.
Link’s experience include roles of increasing responsibility in human resources, mergers and acquisitions, and operational effectiveness. His personal interests include talent acquisition management, employee and leadership development, equality and equity, employee engagement, internal innovation, and driving rapid business scalability through both organic and inorganic, often complex, growth opportunities.
Born and raised on a working family farm, Link brings an agile, transparent, can-do approach to his client’s needs. Equally effective from manufacturing floor to board room, his natural curiosity and resourcefulness generates long lasting relationships that drive value creation and sustainable business results.
As a recognized thought leader in human capability and the future of work, Jim is a sought-after commentator with the national and international press, features widely on the lecture and speaker circuit, and consults with leaders, companies and boards of directors around the world on matters related to the workplace.
Additionally, he is in his tenth year as an adjunct professor teaching Human Resources Strategy in the MBA program at the Poznan School of Economics in Poznan, Poland and entering his second year teaching the same topic to graduate students in Yangon, Myanmar.
While serving on boards of advisors for several early-stage companies, Jim is a board member of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) Foundation and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Human Capital Advisory Council. He is active with a number of charitable organizations in his community and is certified as a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP).
Consulting Editor, India Today Group
Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author of the best-selling book, '2014: The Election that Changed India'. With 26 years of journalistic experience in print and TV, Sardesai was managing editor of the NDTV network before he set up the IBN 18 network with channels like CNN IBN as founder editor. He began his career with the Times of India and was the city editor of its Mumbai edition at the age of 26. He is presently a consulting editor with the India Today Group and anchors a prime time show on India Today.
Specialising in business events and the political landscape, Sardesai has won numerous awards for journalistic excellence including the prestigious Padma Shri for Journalism in 2008, and the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for 2007. He has also won the Asian Television Awards 2014 for Best News Presenter in Asia for the coverage of the 2014 general elections. He has been News Anchor of the Year at the Indian Television Academy for eight of the last ten years and his programme Big Fight won the Asian TV award for best talk show twice in a row. He has been the President of the Editors Guild of India and was also chosen as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 2000. Sardesai writes a fortnightly column across several newspapers, including the Hindustan Times.
An Oxford blue at cricket, he completed his Masters and LLB from Oxford University after graduating in economics from St. Xavier's College in Mumbai.
CEO, Tutorvista (Promoter, BigBasket)
Ganesh is a seasoned entrepreneur with a proven track record of launching and exiting four successful ventures. He is the founder and partner at GrowthStory.in, a leading venture builder platform that incubates and promotes new ventures and entrepreneurs.
GrowthStory has been instrumental in the growth of several leading companies, including BigBasket.com - India’s largest e-grocery company (majority-owned by the Tata Group), Portea Medical - India’s largest and fastest-growing home healthcare company with over 4000 employees across 37 cities, Bluestone.com - a top online jewelry company, and HomeLane - India’s leading end-to-end interior design and manufacturing provider.
Ganesh’s previous ventures have also seen great success. TutorVista, his last venture, was acquired by education leader Pearson in 2011 for $213 MM. He was also the founder and chairman of Marketics, a data analytics BPO firm, which was acquired by WNS in 2007 for $63 MM. Additionally, he founded CustomerAsset, a BPO/Call center pioneer, which was acquired by ICICI Bank and is now publicly listed as First Source Solutions. Ganesh’s first venture, IT&T, was one of India’s top multi-vendor IT service and support companies and was acquired by iGate in 2003.
Ganesh is an active angel investor and has invested in several startups, including LittleEyeLabs (acquired by Facebook in 2014), delyver.com (acquired by BigBasket in 2015), DealShare, Oto Capital, HackerEarth, CredR, Pokkt, SilverPush, DogSpot, Euler Motors, and more. He is also a mentor and incubator to startups and has held senior management positions at Wipro/Bharti British Telecom and HCL Ltd.
Ganesh holds a postgraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Delhi University. He has received the Distinguished Alumnus award from both institutions and has served as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and as the Founder Director of the IIM Calcutta Innovation Park & Incubation cell.
As an Adjunct Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, he teaches an MBA class on “New Age Business Models” and as a Visiting Faculty at the Indian School of Business Hyderabad, he teaches a course on “Launching Software Startups” to postgraduate management students. Ganesh is also a well-known speaker at entrepreneurship, startup, and technology events and has been recognized as one of the "Iconic Entrepreneurs of India" by the National Knowledge Commission and was a nominee for The Economic Times ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award in 2015.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ganesh co-founded a social initiative to provide 65 lakh meals to migrant and daily wage workers across five cities during March 2020. During the second wave of the pandemic, he worked to provide free oxygen support to COVID patients and collaborated with state governments to upgrade healthcare infrastructure facilities. His non-profit Bahaar Foundation, focuses on creating micro entrepreneurs in Healthcare and Agriculture sectors.
Chairman & Co-Founder, Lakshya Trust
Manvendra Singh Gohil is the Crown Prince of Rajpipla, an erstwhile princely State of Gujarat and the 39th direct descendant of the 650-year-old Gohil Dynasty. He is the first member of a royal family to openly come out as gay to the world. He is the only Indian to be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey three times and has been featured on the show ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’. He is the Chairperson and Co-founder of Lakshya Trust dedicated towards Empowerment of LGBT community. He is also the Brand Ambassador of AIDS Healthcare Foundation India Cares, the world's oldest and largest nonprofit organization for HIV testing and treatment. Currently he is developing his dream project, a LGBTQIA+ community campus at his royal establishment of Hanumanteshwar for the social and financial empowerment of LGBTQIA+ community. He is also a Board member of Eyes Open International, an American NGO working for issues of Human trafficking and slavery.
Founder & Editor, The Health Collective & Founder, Tap in Tribe
Amrita Tripathi is a 2X Founder, published author and public speaker. She is the founder and editor of The Health Collective, a safe space for conversations on mental health with an India lens, and the founder of Tap In Tribe (beta), which focuses on women and leadership. She has 20 years of work experience in the media and digital, including as a senior news anchor, and was most recently the Head of Content Partnerships, Twitter India.
She has written two novels, Broken News (2010) and The Sibius Knot (2015) and co-authored the non-fiction Mindscape series of 3 books on mental health with leading psychologists, on Depression, Anxiety and Young Mental Health. Tripathi most recently co-authored Life Interrupted: Understanding India’s Suicide Crisis (2022) with senior psychiatrists Dr Soumitra Pathare and Dr Abhijit Nadkarni.
Economic Analyst, Advisor & Author - The Next New
PRANJAL SHARMA is an economic analyst, advisor and author based in New Delhi who focuses on technology, globalisation and emerging markets. He is an advisor to boards, industry associations and international institutions. His third book, ‘The Next New: Navigating The Fifth Industrial Revolution’ is about how sustainability, social impact and technology breakthroughs are collectively disrupting global business models. It will be published by HarperCollins in June 2023. He read economics at University of Delhi and specialised in business media at University of Westminster, London. A former head of Bloomberg TV in India, he is a speaker at various fora in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Managing Director & Senior Partner, Chair of Practices & Partner Committee, BCG India
Abheek Singhi is a Managing Director & Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group. He is currently the Chair of Practices at BCG India. In the past, Abheek Singhi has led Boston Consulting Group’s Consumer and Retail practice in Asia-Pacific and has been a member of the Global Practice Leadership Team. He was nominated as a BCG Fellow in 2016. Abheek has nearly 25 plus years of experience with clients across the globe.
Abheek has partnered closely with clients across various sectors in delivering transformative impact – both with large corporations as well as mid-sized organizations. He has deep experience in strategy development and execution. In recent years, he has worked closely with organizations to deploy the impact of digital technologies and analytics for their business.
Abheek has been a member of the National FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) Committee of CII. He is also a member of National council of RAI (Retailers Association of India). In these roles, he has worked to monitor the industry trends and shape industry-wide responses. He was also selected by the Aspen Ananta Institute as part of the India Leadership Initiative program and is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He has been named as Top 100 Retail minds in Asia Pacific Retail as well as Top 50 in Indian Fashion and Luxury
Abheek is a coauthor of the bestselling BCG book The $10 Trillion Prize (published by Harvard Business Review Press). He has also written several seminal reports on the Asian consumer retail and digital and he is a frequent contributor to national and international publications and is a speaker at leading business conferences and seminars. He has contributed to and quoted in leading publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Economist, Economic Times, Mint, Times of India, Hindustan Times.
Dean & Professor - Organizational Behaviour, ISB
Madan Pillutla is Dean & Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the Indian School of Business. Madan has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from BITS, Pilani, and a post graduate degree in Personnel Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He has received distinguished alumni awards from both these institutions. He also has a post graduate degree from the University of Illinois and a PhD from the University of British Columbia.
Madan was on the faculty of the London Business School for twenty two years. During his time there, he served in many leadership positions including as the Deputy Dean of Faculty, Member of the Management Board, the school’s Executive Committee and the school’s Governing Body.
Madan’s research is in the broad area of decision making and negotiations and much of it has investigated cognitive and motivational biases in these domains. Madan’s research appeared in the best academic journals in the field. He has been on editorial boards of many of these journals including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review etc, and has also served as an editor at the Academy of Management Annals and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
Madan has won numerous teaching awards at LBS where he introduced the popular Negotiations elective and directed successful executive education programs such as the Essentials of Leadership and Negotiation & Influence programs.
Indian Model, Actress & Miss Universe 2021
Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu (born 3 March 2000) is an Indian model, actress, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe 2021. She had been previously crowned Miss Universe India 2021, and is the third entrant from India to win Miss Universe after a long gap of 21 years.
President & CHRO, Wipro
Saurabh Govil is the President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro Ltd. He is also a member of the Group Executive Council, a forum for the core group of Wipro leaders to deliberate and strategize the long-term vision of the corporation. He is also a trustee of the Wipro Foundation, a not-for-profit trust that contributes to education, community service projects and social development
As the CHRO, Saurabh is responsible for the entire spectrum of the global Human Resources function, including talent planning, enhancing operational efficiencies and driving people transformation initiatives across the organization. He is leading several pioneering programs to redesign the HR function for the digital age.
Saurabh is a strong votary of inclusion and diversity, and Wipro has been widely recognized for its robust and successful programs aimed at driving and sustaining diversity initiatives, policies and processes.
Saurabh is a seasoned Human Resources professional, with wide-ranging experience of over two decades. Prior to joining Wipro in 2009, Saurabh held leadership positions in organizations like ITC and GE.
Saurabh is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur where he completed his Masters in Human Resources. He is on the Advisory Board of the India Chapter of Society for Human Resources Management, the world’s largest HR professional society.
He is a regular speaker at various human resources fora globally and contributes to the Journal of National HRD Network (NHRDN).
Saurabh is based in Bangalore.
Managing Director & Global Lead for HR Operations, Accenture
Parag Pande is the Managing Director responsible for Accenture’s Human Resources Service Delivery & Operations across the globe.
Prior to his current role, Parag has been CHRO for Accenture India and in various leadership roles in Global HR, India Operations, leading Accenture India’s BPO operations in Delhi NCR and has served as the India & APAC Lead for Accenture's Customer Contact Business Services (ACCBS). During this period, he was instrumental in building differentiated capabilities, growing businesses & stabilizing operations.
Over the past 28 years Parag has spent a considerable part of his career in roles spanning Human Resources, Learning, Projects, Banking, Treasury, Financial Services and Business Operations. In addition, he has worked across strategy, planning, business development, mobilization, finance and service delivery. This included setting-up green field projects, Nominee - Director on board, turning around troubled businesses and companies, developing and executing strategy and managing over USD 1billion dollar investments.
Parag has also been a Rotarian, assisting orphanages and renovating schools in Mumbai’s slums. He has been recognized by The Rotary International as a Paul Harris Fellow.
Founder & CEO, Unstop
Ankit Aggarwal is the Founder & CEO of Unstop, a community engagement and hiring platform for students and freshers , where talent meets opportunities. Unstop is a playground for talented individuals to learn, upskill, showcase their skills, gain CV points, and get hired to unlock their true potential throughout their academic journey. Unstop has a community of 6 Million+ Students and Freshers.
Ankit's journey combines a background as a Consultant at top firms, including Sapient and Deloitte, with a passion for education, demonstrated through his involvement with Teach for India. Ankit’s dedication to Unstop has been duly recognized, earning Unstop the distinction of the Best Workforce Enablement Startup by Entrepreneur India and the prestigious Startup 50 Trailblazer Award by Dun & Bradstreet. His impactful ideas have reached global audiences through his engaging TEDx talks, and he was named among India's 100 Great People Managers by Forbes in 2020.
Beyond work, Ankit is an avid cricket player, adventurer, and philanthropist committed to Education, Diversity & Inclusion, and Health & Well-being. Ankit finds joy in spending quality time with his family and friends.
Director, Indian Institute of Management Nagpur
Bhimaraya Metri, Director, IIM Nagpur is a distinguished academician, renowned teacher, researcher, an astute administrator and institution builder. An outstanding leader of management education, he has performed key leadership roles at many premier management institutes and corporate in his remarkable career. Dr. Metri is the former Director of IIM Tiruchirappalli. Under his dynamic leadership, IIM Tiruchirappalli has catapulted among the league of top business schools in India. He has also contributed immensely as Dean at L& T Institute of Project Management Vadodara, IMI New Delhi, MDI Gurgaon and leading research programs at BITS Pilani.
A renowned expert in the area of Project Management & Infrastructure, Quality Management and Supply Chain Management, he has numerous research papers and books to his credit apart from being on the editorial advisory boards of several national and international journals.
Currently, Dr. Metri is the member of Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO (INCCU), He also serves as the Chairman, All India Board of Management Studies, AICTE, New Delhi; Chairman, WG-DEB, UGC, New Delhi; Chairman, human resources management and innovation sectional committee & Chairman, Management and Systems Division Council (MSDC), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), New Delhi and Chairman, AIMA Board of Studies, New Delhi.
Dr. Metri is the Visitor Nominee to IIT Delhi, IIT Roorkee and IIT Jodhpur. He is also nominee of MoE, Govt of India on the Board of Governors of NITIE Mumbai & NIBM Pune and Chancellor’s Nominee on Academic Council, Gondwana University. Dr. Metri is member of Board of Governors of CMDR Dharwad; NICMAR University Pune; SDMIMD Mysore; AIMA New Delhi; JSPM University Pune and MEPSC, New Delhi.
Dr. Metri serves as member of AICTE-Council, AICTE Executive Committee, Appeals Committee of NAAC, Bengaluru & member AAC-National Board of Accreditation (NBA), New Delhi; Honorary Advisor to TNeGA, Ministry of IT, Govt of Tamil Nadu; member, International Advisory Council, Chanakya University, Bangaluru; Member- National Management Committee, PMA, India; Member, Academic council, NIMSME, Hyderabad; Academic Council Member KIIT Bhubaneswar and
Dr. Metri worked as Visitor nominee & convener/member of the committee constituted for the selection of Vice Chancellors of Central universities & other central Govt. universities. He has also served earlier as a member of various national committees of higher education constituted by government and professional bodies. He served as on the panel of experts for mentoring the Institutes of Eminence (IoE), Chairman/member of several committees of AICTE, UGC, NBA, UKIERI, AIU, IGNOU, IIM Kozhikode Society, Governing Council of SACON Coimbatore under the MoEFCC, Govt. of India; UERC Uttarakhand; Principal Technical Agency (PTA) for PMGSY projects for Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan; IIIC, Govt. of Kerala; member BOG of SVVV Indore; member of the committee for establishment of Online University, Govt. of Maharashtra; Member, Expert Group constituted by MoE for NEP-2020 and has also served on the board of Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), Houston, Texas, USA.
Dr. Metri was leader of the two Indian delegations to Bali, Indonesia for ISO/ TC 260 and to Amersfoort, Netherlands for ISO/ TC 251, for development of international standards. He was the chairman of the International Academic Review Committee for Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat Oman; Foreign expert for HEQAAC (UGC), Nepal; Member, ABMC Accreditation Panel, Osaka, Japan; Member, Eurasia-Pacific Uninet (EPU).
Dr. Metri was the first Indian elected as the Vice President, Asia Pacific Division, Decision Sciences Institute (DSI). He was the Chief Guest for the 55th Convocation of Shivaji University, Anna University and many other engineering and management institutions in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. He was also invited as a key Note speaker at Pan-African PMC, Cameroon and taught GMP to Mauritian Business Leaders as a visiting faculty of ESSEC Business School Paris.
Dr. Metri has trained more than 200 Vice Chancellors of Central, State & Private Universities in the country. He also has trained more than 1000 Directors, Deans, Principals and HODs of leading Engineering Institutes including NITs under World Bank assisted project of MHRD-TEQIP to improve the quality of technical education in the country.
Dr. Metri is deeply involved with executive education at board, senior and middle management levels including international training with a wide range of organizations including leading organizations of government, public sector (Maharatna & Navaratna companies), private sector and foreign government bodies. He has conducted several board level and top management programs for the leading public sector organizations such as NLCIL, NUPPL, ONGC, HPCL, NRPC (CMD/Dy CMD/IAS Officers/CEs), etc. He has trained senior executives of several leading organizations including CIL, WCL, NTPC, NHPC, PGCIL, BHEL, HCL, RBI, ONGC, IOCL, CPCL, NLCIL, ECIL, EIL, WAPCOS, NEEPCO, SJVNL, PSEB, BEL, ATAL, NAAC, JNVs, Sona Koyo, Fortis, Jindal Stainless Steel Ltd, PNB, CIDC, ABB, L&T, Nestle, Eli Lilly, EXL, Hindustan Copper Ltd, Hindustan Zinc, Sikkim Govt. Officers, Aditya Birla Group DCM Shriram, Cairn Energy, Public Enterprise, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, DOAE (Department of Atomic Energy) Officers, Army Officers, ITEC Officers (Ministry of External Affairs) from 30 plus countries, New Holland Fiat and Ministry of health & family welfare.
Dr. Metri has provided consultancy to various premier organizations such as L&T, Bosch, Titan, FDCM, NTPC, Army Ordinance Corps (AOC) Ministry of Defense, Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), Railway Land Development Authority (RLDA) etc.
Globally exposed and widely travelled across four continents and 29 countries visiting B-schools and universities for executive education and internationalization initiatives. Dr. Metri has led a successful national and international Accreditation & Re-accreditation programs led a Curriculum Review Committee that undertook a major overhaul of the PGDM programs. He has been instrumental in enhancement of physical and intellectual infrastructure and increased the strength of PGDM programs for successfully positioning MDI Gurgaon, IMI Delhi and IIM Tiruchirappalli amongst the leading Business Schools of the country.
For such illustrious contributions to the society, he has been bestowed with several prestigious awards and recognitions. Dr. Metri received the prestigious Ravi J Matthai National Fellow Award. He is the only serving IIM Director to receive the country’s prestigious AIMA-Kewal Nohria Award for Academic Leadership in Management Education, and Distinguished Services Award by Asia Pacific Decision Sciences Institute, Top Director Award by CSR; Prerana Purshkar - Distinguished Alumnus Award, and "Top Rankers Excellence Award for Outstanding Academic Leadership" by Top Rankers Management Club, New Delhi.
Dr. Metri received his Ph.D. from IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai. Currently, he is the President of ISDSI-Global and member of the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) USA.
Senior Partner, Bain & Company
Prashant Sarin is a Senior Partner with Bain & Company's New Delhi office. He leads Bain’s Advanced Manufacturing & Services and Energy & Natural Resources Practices in India.
Since joining Bain in 2006, Prashant has led scale transformation programs with large family managed conglomerates and MNCs in the US, Southeast Asia, and India. He was based in Silicon Valley for 4+ years advising Bain’s largest global clients – and re-located to India, in 2019. Prashant is also the co-head of the firm’s Social Impact practice in India, leading pro bono engagements with global and Indian NGOs focused on education and the environment.
In 2015, Prashant was selected as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum, Davos and as one of India's '40 Under 40' Business Leaders by The Economic Times. In 2014, he was selected as one of India's Top 25 Young Executives by Business Today.
Prashant has been cited and published in several leading mainstream and business publications, including The Economic Times, Mint, The Hindu, and The Hindustan Times. He co-authored the first Bain- Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA) annual reports in 2009 and 2010, which have become the reference for the private equity industry in India.
Prashant was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he earned a Master's in Management Studies. He was an Aditya Birla Scholar at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, where he received an MBA. He graduated from Delhi University with a B.Engg. in Civil Engineering.
Prashant lives in Delhi with his wife and two children, and enjoys long distance running, swimming, and watching live performances.
Senior Partner, Kearney
Neelesh is a Senior Partner with Kearney and leads the Leadership, Change & Organization Practice for India and the Fashion & Luxury Practice for Asia. Neelesh has completed his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and has over 31 years of Consulting and Industry experience.
Experience
Neelesh has advised clients across industries on operating model design for growth, productivity and agility, change management and leadership development. He has deeply studied topics such as organization readiness for growth, manager productivity and agility. He has been trained in Change Management, Strategic Thinking and Executive Presence and trains consultants and clients as part of large scale transformations. Neelesh has written many white papers on manager productivity, agility and also published articles in refereed journals on organization design.
In his industry role, Neelesh has advised many large fashion and lifestyle retailers across multiple geographies – India, Far East, US, EU, Japan and Middle East. His work covers all aspects of fashion and luxury – apparel, textiles, watches and accessories, diamonds and jewellery and has advised clients on growth and entry strategy, format and value proposition design, product strategy, manufacturing and supply strategy and operating model. He has authored comprehensive studies of the luxury market in India and South East Asia in partnership with CII and Economic Times.
Before consulting he worked as Senior Human Resources professional in various transformational roles with a leading Apparel and Textiles player where he actively drove change and transformation. As such he also understands the fashion industry from machinery to mannequins.
He is currently a member of the CII Textiles & Apparel Committee. In the past he has served on the CII MNC Committee, CII Textiles Committee, CII Committee on Luxury and Lifestyle and FICCI Lifestyle Committee.
Neelesh works actively on social impact. He has served on the Board of Bombay International School and as the Chairman of the Board led the school through a critical transformation. He serves on the Advisory Board of Creative Dignity, a collective of all the crafts organizations in India and on the Social Impact Governing Board of Kearney. He has worked with Ashoka Foundation on sustainability in the textile value chain through an initiative called Fabric of Change. He and his wife Vishpala run an Ekibeki, a Not for Profit Social Enterprise which focuses on reviving dying crafts.
Neelesh loves Hindustani Classical Music and has been learning singing for the last 10 years. He is an avid audiophile and cherishes the quality of the music as much as the music itself. He loves to cook the famous Saoji cuisine of Nagpur. He lives in South Mumbai with his three children, mother and German Shepherd dog.
Director, Lead Angels Network
Prof Dhruv Nath is an angel investor, a mentor to startups, an author, and a Director with Lead Angels Network. As part of this journey, he has invested in twenty start-ups, and has mentored over a hundred others. Earlier he was a Professor at MDI, Gurgaon, and a Senior Vice President at NIIT Ltd.
He has been a consultant to the Top Management of Glaxo, Gillette, Nestle, Indianoil Corporation, Thermax, Bajaj Auto, Air India etc., as well as to the Prime Minister of Namibia and the Chief Minister of Delhi.
Prof Nath has a B Tech in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Computer Science, both from IIT Delhi.
He has written six books so far. Two of these are on the subject of startups, namely “The DREAM Founder”, and “Funding Your Start-up: And Other Nightmares”. His latest book is “Welcome to Aaraampur”, a book of humorous short stories about life in the hills of India. All three of these books have been published by Penguin Randomhouse.
Head - HR GSC India & Global Functions GSC HTC, HSBC Global Service, Operations & Technology Centers
Dimple is a Head of HR GSC India & Global Functions GSC HTC at HSBC Operations, Services and Technology Centers. She is an experienced HR leader who has worked across industry and consulting with a specific focus on aligning people strategy to business strategy. She has practical and hands on experience in transforming Global HR organizations and partnered with senior business leaders. She has led large HR Operations, Restructures and Organisation Designs, Transformation and HR Shared Services teams. Dimple is an adept problem solver and demonstrates the ability to juggle multiple and competing priorities and translate strategy into clearly defined action plans utilizing sound business acumen and grounded experience. She believes in harnessing the power of people to create customer delight and long lasting business impact and drives optimal cost and performance of organizations in fast growing, commercial and international arenas. She is passionate about providing evidence based insight in helping organisations attract and retain talent. She has worked global roles with Ernst and Young, Aon, WNS and Standard and Poors.
Dimple has written many industry papers across a variety of topics in HR and is a Bachelor in Information Technology and has a Masters in Business Administration.
Global Head - Digital Business Operations & CEO, State Street Syntel Services
2019-2022
Global head Atos Syntel €800m business: Banking, Financial Services & Insurance
Responsible for the strategy, operations and driving growth for this division.
Global head; KPO business; State Street JV operations
2013-2018
Global head Syntel – Banking & Financial Services:
2008-2012
CEO State Street Syntel Services
Before joining Syntel, Raj spent 3 ½ years as a site leader for JP Morgan’s Global development centre at Bangalore. Raj was responsible for overseeing banking and technology operations, servicing the Retail, Commercial and Treasury service businesses of the Bank.
Prior to JP Morgan, held several roles at GE, from Global account management, to running Operations. His last role in GE was as 6 Sigma Quality Leader for GE Capital’s back office in India, where he led a large team of Master Black Belts and Black Belts.
He has 34 + years of diversified experience in industries ranging from automotive, manufacturing, life sciences and financial services. His strength lies in delivering high quality operations, technology, and consulting solutions to enable a digital experience.
Raj holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University, Chennai & an MBA from the SP Jain Institute of Management, Bombay University.
President - HR & Business Operations, Medi Assist
Manmohan S Kalsy serves as President - HR & Business Operations at Medi Assist. His key role is to align business outcomes with people practices at the Company which employs more than 5,000 employees and is India’s largest health tech and benefits administration company.
Recently , he has served Inbrew Beverages and Go First airlines as the head of human resources functions. He was CHRO at United Breweries Limited from 2013 to 2020 which was a joint venture with Heineken Prior to UB, Manmohan worked as Executive Director - HR at Xerox where he was also appointed on the board of the Company as a whole- time director.
Across his stints at Gillette, PepsiCo,Airtel, Vodafone, Xerox and UBL, Manmohan has led senior executive hiring at CEO & CXO levels and has been involved with multiple projects of start-ups, acquisitions and mergers.
Manmohan is an MBA from IPM, Meerut and has been certified by INSEAD, DDI, Hogan, Hay and Gallup.Manmohan is associated with Chandigarh University on its corporate advisory board and contributes to the HR fraternity by sharing his thoughts for the function at various HR forums. He has also been a part of CII & various government committees to advise on policy matters pertaining to HR ,IR and safety issues. Manmohan has served the NHRD chapters and is a past Rotarian.
Co-Founder & COO, Advantage Club
Smiti Bhatt Deorah is the Co-Founder and COO of Advantage Club, a global employee experience platform, empowering employers to engage meaningfully with their employees and driving employee satisfaction.
With a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of California Los Angeles, Smiti was working with Microsoft in the US before coming back to India to start Advantage Club, a global HR Tech platform present in 100+ countries, with features like rewards, recognition, community building, and FlexBen for employees.
Smiti's unparalleled vision, leadership, and expertise earned her numerous accolades, including "ET Inspiring Women Leaders 2023", "Times Ascent Entrepreneur of the year 2023", "BW Businessworld Woman Leader of the Year 2022", and was also featured in YourStory's Women Entrepreneurs in HR Tech who are Transforming the HR Industry.
Smiti's has spoken at numerous conferences and has been featured in leading media outlets, including Josh Talks, Forbes India, Economic Times, People Matters, CNBCTV18, Telegraph, India Today, BW Business World and many more.
Talent Strategy Advisor, Indeed.com
An experienced content creator, with over eleven years of experience across verticals, Rohan Sylvester has a demonstrated history of working in the content industry. Combining his passion for content, data-driven insights, and recruitment technologies, he is able to provide companies with actionable strategies to enhance their recruitment.
As the recruitment evangelist for Indeed in India, Rohan leverages Indeed’s extensive platform data and research to support HR and TA professionals across India with insights that could help them attract and hire the right talent.
Rohan is a Marine Engineer and an alumnus of Birla Institute of Technology.
Group Head – Human Resources, InterGlobe Enterprises
KS is the Group Head of Human Resources for InterGlobe Enterprises. He is an integral part of the leadership team and serves on the Executive Committee of InterGlobe Enterprises. He provides strategic and operational leadership to the Human Resources Function and is responsible for integrating HR practices throughout the organisation.
With an experience in Human Resources spanning over 30 years, KS brings rich & varied experience in Aviation, Hospitality, Telecom and Manufacturing sectors. KS is an experienced thought leader & believes in developing the business leaders by Coaching & Mentoring. He has driven business results through innovative people strategies and building strong learning culture in the organisation. He has successfully led various projects in Leadership Development, Culture Building, and Talent Management practices.
KS has previously held senior roles at The Oberoi Group, IndiGo and Bharti Airtel.
KS holds a master’s degree in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations from XLRI, Jamshedpur.
CHRO, Jindal Stainless
Sushil Baveja is the CHRO of Jindal Stainless Ltd. Jindal Stainless is the largest stainless steel company in India and ranks amongst the top 10 stainless steel conglomerates in the world.
Sushil has in the past worked across the entire spectrum of HR & IR in professionally-run Indian family business enterprises (Samtel, Dalmia and DCM Shriram) and reputed multinationals (Cadbury, Gillette, Alcatel) for over 38 years leading HR for Factory, Sales and Corporate in India and South East Asia.
Sushil is an alumnus of Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad. He has also done the Advanced Human Resource Executive Program (AHREP) from the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.
He has been associated with various professional and industry bodies including CII, Assocham, DMA, SHRM and NHRDN.
Vice President & Head of Human Resources, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, India
Sailesh Menezes is currently the India HR Leader with an overall responsibility for the India Geography. Sailesh has played multiple roles in his career with HP/HPE including the HR leader for the Sales, Engineering (R&D), Services & Software organizations in the country, and has been responsible for the execution of people strategy, engagement & development, employee relations and talent management.
Prior to joining Hewlett-Packard in December 2011, Sailesh had worked in two other organizations for about 15 years both in India and the US, first at IBM (www.ibm.com) and more recently at Wipro Technologies (www.wipro.com) as a General Manager where he had a global responsibility leading Talent Management and Organization Capability Building in addition to driving HR Systems & Solutions, Processes and HR Policy formulation across the 140,000 strong organization.
He is a post graduate rank holder in business management from the Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship, India.
CEO, Woliba
"Nathan Figg is the founder and CEO of Woliba - a corporate wellness company that prioritizes Work Life Balance for employees.
Nathan is a lifelong fitness enthusiast who brings a competitive spirit to every sport he’s loved: basketball, soccer, running, swimming and bmx riding are the top five. He became a master personal trainer to help others harness the benefits of movement and nutrition. But he was always itching to find a way to have a bigger impact.
In 2014, he launched Woliba when he noticed that his corporate clients weren’t as passionate about helping their employees as he was. So, he decided to build a wellness and engagement platform with a mission to transform company culture. Woliba has since become a leader in the corporate wellness space by offering more HR software tools and resources than our competitors. And, unlike companies that are there to check a box, Woliba prides itself on taking a holistic approach to wellbeing and creating original and innovative content with an in-house wellness team.
Woliba also embraces service and sacrifice as a core value - providing discounts for non-profits and educational organizations. This has always been a driving force for Nathan who joined the Army National Guard after the September 11th attacks and served as a combat veteran in Iraq and Afghanistan"
Vice President & Head of People & Culture, Volvo
Amit Sharma is a senior HR professional with almost two and half decades of rich experience across various HR roles of which past more than a decade has been in Leadership positions with top-of-the-line organizations, in a diverse set of industries such as Indian Oil, Johnson & Johnson, Philips, TE Connectivity and Volvo Group.
With a high focus on Business HR, his experience spans on Workforce Strategy, HR Business Partnering, Organization Development, Change Management, Capability Building, Leadership Development, Employee Relations, Employee Engagement, Inclusion and Diversity at workplace, thus fueling business growth through high-performance Culture. He has successfully set up various greenfield organizations and has also led business footprint consolidation.
He is a proponent of bringing technology to HR processes while retaining the human connections in the organization. Amit values sense of responsibility, integrity, attention to detail, thorough planning while keeping the room for flexibility and improvisation during the execution.
Amit has received various internal and external recognitions for his work in HR and has been speaking on HR topics in various external forums. He has recently been recognized as “HR Leader of the Year 2023 – Large Scale Organisations” by The Economic Times and also India’s Top 23 HR Influencers for 2023 by HR Association of India.
Amit is MBA(HR) from UBS, Panjab University, Chandigarh and an Engineering Graduate from Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Patiala. He has also done Diploma in Training & Development from ISTD New Delhi, is certified OD Practitioner from ISABS New Delhi and a certified Coach.
He has been Vice President of the National HRD Network, Bangalore Chapter for the year 2019-21 and is currently a member of CII’s National Committee on Industrial Relations.
Global Talent & Enablement Services Leader, EY Global Delivery Services
Sree is the Global Talent Leader at EY’s Global Delivery Services (GDS) since March 2019. Additionally, he has taken over the role of GDS Enablement Services (ES) Leader from 1 July 2020.
At EY, the focus is to develop leaders who build a better working world. In his role as Global Talent Leader, Sree is leading and driving the complete re-imagination of Talent initiatives, enabling improved partnership with the business. He is also working towards an ambitious three-year vision for ES, of building a distinctive, world class global delivery enablement services organization with exceptional people to enable EY to win in the market.
Sree is also part of the EY Global Diversity and Inclusiveness Steering Committee, the Global Talent Leadership at EY and the GDS Executive Committee.
He has over 25 years of experience in both Human Resources and broader business transformation, extending from human resources management, people supply chain management and organizational development, to technology leadership and quality management.
He is well versed in mergers and acquisitions, talent integration, leadership development, HR shared services, HR analytics and change management.
Sree is qualified in TQM, TPS, PCMM and Agile Methodology & Change Management (Change Acceleration Process). He is also a certified Six Sigma Master Blackbelt and Agile Coach.
Executive Vice President & Head - Corporate Human Resources (CHRO), Larsen & Toubro Limited
Executive Vice President & Head – Corporate Human Resources (CHRO), Larsen & Toubro Limited, an Indian Multi-national Conglomerate. A highly result-oriented, HR professional with 35 years of experience in successfully planning, designing, implementing, and managing various strategic HR Initiatives.
On academic front, he is an alumnus of Madras School of Social Work, XLRI – Jamshedpur and London Business School where he specialized in Leadership & Human Resource Management. Qualified in Law (LLB) and a doctorate in leadership from the University of Madras, he is also certified in OD from the NTL, USA.
Dr. C. Jayakumar has made an immense contribution in the Human Resources arena over the years. He presides on the Boards of esteemed professional bodies and in the Board of Studies of various prestigious educational institutions such as Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), All India Management Association (AIMA), School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL), The Dr. Pritam Singh Foundation, and SAP Success Factors CHRO Advisory Board.
He is also a Member of the National HR Committee of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Member of National Committee on Leadership & HR, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Chairperson of the CII – HR Sub-Committee of CII-Western Region, etc.
Dr. Jayakumar has been honored with HR Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022 by FICCI and by Economic Times & People Business in the year 2021. ET HR World recognized him among the top 50 HR Thought leaders of 2022 acknowledging his exceptional work done in HR leadership. He has also featured in the Top 100 Great People Managers’ List of 2023 by Great Manager Institute® and the National Human Resource Development Network (NHRDN).
He is a life member of NIPM, NHRDN & ISTD.
Partner & Talent Leader, EY India
Sandeep is a Partner and Talent Leader at EY India.
He has done his Master’s in Social Work from Delhi School of Social Work. With almost three decades of work experience, Sandeep’s experience spans the complete value chain of HR across varied Industries - IT (Microsoft, Siemens), Telecom (TCIL Bellsouth) and manufacturing (Taylor), Consulting (EY) in the area of talent acquisition, leadership development, HR transformation, organization development, DEI, and coaching.
In an increasingly dynamic and disruptive working world, Sandeep believes in being an effective ‘Change Leader’, who is shaping the organization’s culture by attracting talented professionals and providing them with an environment where they can realize their full potential while delivering on the organisation’s purpose. In his role as the Talent Leader, Sandeep has enabled EY India to lead in the talent space by developing and deploying a business aligned people strategy and successfully leading multiple change initiatives that shape organizational culture.
Sandeep is recognised as a trusted advisor by his stakeholders within the organisation and also holds a strong professional brand within the industry, having been recognised as an influential HR Leader by CHRO Asia and amongst the top HR professionals by World HRD Network.
Vice President - People Team & Head of Human Resources, GlobalLogic India
Rajesh Rai is Vice President – People Team and Head of Human Resources for GlobalLogic in India. Rajesh is responsible for spearheading the company’s HR transformation, Learning & Development, Change Management and D&I & Sustainability initiatives for India.
With over two decades of experience in the HR industry, Rajesh has extensive experience of working with global business & HR teams across multiple cross-cultural border teams effectively. Rajesh will help GlobalLogic build new frontiers that will bolster the company’s vision in building a ‘humans and people first’ culture, drive employee experience, nurture diversity and inclusion, and transform the employees’ and company’s growth journey.
Rajesh has worked with various leading global organizations such as Eicher Motors, Expedia, United Colors of Benetton, Adobe Systems, Ernst & Young, and Arthur Andersen. Rajesh joined GlobalLogic this year and was previously associated with Accenture as Head of HR for their Consulting business in India, along with India Corporate Functions. He enabled HR interventions & strategies for a huge workforce, that focused on crafting industry leading HR practices, commissioning large-scale transformational change and redefining employee experience through Human Capital strategies, Culture, Performance Achievement, Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion.
Rajesh holds a Bachelors and Masters in Chemistry from Delhi University and an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur. He is a GALLUP Strengths Coach and loves coaching teams and individuals for leveraging & applying their strengths. Rajesh loves to travel & experience local cultures. He also loves Yoga, meditation, painting, sketching, music, soccer and is an avid reader.
Head of Reward Pension Benefits - International Hubs, Natwest Group
A corporate professional with close to two decades of experience, Poulomi has held a variety of roles in her career spanning across countries and functions. Poulomi is an XLRI alumnus with diverse experience in Banking, Financial Services and Manufacturing industries. She has led country and global assignments across different HR areas such as Business Partnering, Compensation and Benefit, Talent and OD, M&A and Business Change and Transformation. Poulomi currently Heads Reward Pension and Benefit for the International Hubs at Natwest Group. At NatWest, she has worked in Centre of Expertise and Front Facing HR, and has been responsible for providing thought leadership and counsel working with business, driving strategic people and culture agenda, business transformation and change. She is passionate about building an environment that fosters a culture of high performance, creates diverse and inclusive teams and champions boundary-less collaboration.
Chief People & Culture Officer, CoreStack
In January 2023, Raj pursued an exciting opportunity with CoreStack Inc., an Enterprise SaaS Company in Cloud Services Management and Governance, based in Bellevue, WA. He is part of their Executive Team and leads their people function globally and has been tasked to support growth and scaling of this deep technology company.
Between early 2018 and Jan ‘23, Raj was IndiGo’s Senior Vice President & Head of HR. Prior to that, he had worked at Amazon for over seven years and was lastly their Head of Human Resources (Asia Pacific & Middle East). Raj’s earlier stints were with GE for over ten years across various business and geographies and several senior HR leadership positions at Hindustan Unilever, Ford Motor Company, and HSBC.
Raj serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director on the Board of HealthCare Global Enterprises Ltd (HCG), India’s largest provider of Oncology care and at the forefront of the battle against cancer.
He has a Master’s in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations from Madras School of Social Work, India and is a Global Fellow of The Wharton School in Talent Management.
Regional Director APAC, Top Employers Institute
Billy Elliott is the Top Employers Institute's Regional Director for APAC. He has worked for this global HR Certification firm, headquartered in the Netherlands, for over 13 years. He has worked in a variety of positions covering marketing, sales, HR auditing and operations. Exposure to different business units and a passion for people management have given him the strong foundation needed to oversee the APAC Certification Programme. Billy has a strong belief in the organisation's purpose and is dedicated to accelerating the impact of people strategies to enrich the world of work.
Senior Client Partner & APAC Digital Solutions Leader, Korn Ferry
Sanjeev spearheads Digital solutions for Assessment & Succession and Leadership Development in the APAC region. Boasting an impressive 18+ years of professional experience, Sanjeev's journey has encompassed over 12 years of expertise in people consulting and a remarkable 8+ years in the realm of Digital Product Development and Delivery.
Sanjeev is a tech enthusiast and finds true passion in assisting clients to seamlessly integrate digital solutions into their daily workflows. His extensive clientele spans diverse global territories, including India, Southeast Asia, the UK, various European nations, and the US. He possesses extensive expertise in areas such as people leadership, sales performance, strategy, data governance, SaaS as well as stakeholder engagement. With a strong analytical mindset and a unique ability to approach challenges from a fresh perspective, he is wholeheartedly dedicated to achieving excellence and facilitating the growth of his clients, ensuring their success.
Sanjeev holds a Postgraduate degree (MBA) in Human Resources from XLRI, Jamshedpur, India, and possesses a Bachelor's in Engineering from the Indian Naval Academy. With a remarkable eight-year tenure at Korn Ferry and the founding of his own tech startup, 'Dockabl,' Sanjeev continues to make waves in the world of digital solutions and leadership development.
CEO & Founder, HYRGPT
Debi is a senior technology leader with over 17 years of experience across organizations like Infosys, Deloitte and Amazon. He is obsessed with People Analytic, digital disruption, cloud technology and innovations. He has varied experience of working from services, consulting to Product Management including co-founding his own start up.
Debi is currently co-founder & CEO of Personifwy – an AI based workforce Automation & Analytics platform. Through this, he aims to build a culture of feedback, workforce centricity approach and a insight driven HR system within organizations.
He has also been part of Deloitte CTO Council and was an author of technology trend research report. He works and advises many CEOs, CIOs and CTOs to implement modern digital solutions in Conversational AI, Analytics and Cloud based solutions. Debi has been invited by various corporates, forums, Indian and International universities like the National University of Singapore, UC Berkeley, Amity University, IIM and many more to conduct workshops on Paradigm Shifts in Future Tech Trends, Digital Disruptions, and AI-led Employee Engagement. He is amongst the chosen few from India in the NAS Daily Global Community of Creators. Debi holds advance management degree from Haas School of Business, University of Berkeley, California
CEO, BITS Pilani WILP
Rajiv Tandon is the Chief Executive Officer of the Work Integrated Learning Programmes (WILP) division of BITS Pilani, a globally reputed higher education institution. BITS Pilani WILP is primarily focused on addressing continuous education needs of working professionals and serves multiple industry verticals, such as IT & ITES, Automotive, Manufacturing, Energy, Metals & Mining, and Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare.
Rajiv leads the WILP division and has played a pivotal role in scaling up BITS Pilani’s unique work-integrated learning model, which currently has more than 30,000 working professionals, who are pursuing a range of sector-specific degree and certification programmes. Prior to BITS Pilani, he has worked with highly respected global learning organizations, such as NIIT and Aptech, and with IMT Ghaziabad, one of the leading and top ranked B-Schools. During his career that spans over three decades, he has performed influential work in various strategic leadership roles, both in India as well as several key international markets in Americas, Asia, and Africa. He is a Graduate in Economics from Delhi University and a Post Graduate in Management from IMI, Delhi.
As a passionate proponent of effective industry-academia collaboration, Rajiv has been instrumental in structuring some of the most innovative, highly impactful, and collaborative learning models; these models have helped many sector leading and global corporations address their key goals in relation to talent acquisition, talent transformation, and even talent retention. His ability to galvanize both educators and practitioners to synergize deeply, has contributed to the design of a range of industry-relevant programmes, which have benefitted thousands of working professionals and their employers.
Rajiv’s rich cross-functional experience in the education industry has also endowed him with a deep understanding and appreciation of both opportunities and challenges of the education and learning landscape. He is a firm believer and enthusiast of harnessing the gains from technology to help address various challenges, such as the high cost of education and to provide greater access to high-quality learning to thousands of aspirants all over the world. This belief, over the years, has led him to devote himself to work on several innovative and technology-enabled learning models, which deliver promising, affordable, and high-quality education to those individuals who aspire for it.
Chief Strategy Officer & HR Head, Advantage Club
Raj is an official Forbes HR Council member and a well-known as well as a recognised HR professional in the Industry. In his two decades of global, cross-cultural HR experience, he has worked in various industries, including IT/ITES, Oil & gas, Pharmaceuticals, Engineering and Manufacturing. He has lived and practised HR in the Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Europe.
He is currently the Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Strategy Officer at Advantage Club (AC). It’s a Global HR Technology (SaaS) platform serving 3.5 million employees in employee engagement, well-being, financial health, benefits, perks, rewards and recognition on a single platform. Headquartered in Delaware, Advantage Club has a strong presence in approximately 100+ countries worldwide, serving more than 1000+ Corporates and offering exclusive deals on more than 10,000+ brands.
In his previous role, Raj led Concentrix's global digital talent strategy across 40 nations. Additionally, he spearheaded the line HR department for 70,000 employees across 13 locations in India and the ASEAN region. Raj played a crucial role in the company's expansion into Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United Arab Emirates. He also started the automation and modernization of Concentrix's HR operation.
Leading newspapers, business journals, TV stations, and international conferences feature his opinions and perspectives. He has also received many prestigious industry honours for his various contributions.
His formal qualifications include PGDM from Symbiosis and further study in Digital Transformation from Columbia Business School, Managerial & Leadership Effectiveness from IIMA, and Design Thinking & Innovation from Emeritus, Singapore. He is also a certified M&A Specialist from Aon Hewitt.
Vice President - HR, SAP
As the head of Human Resources for SAP in India, Shweta provides HR leadership across the region for all entities including R&D, Sales, and Services organizations. She is responsible for designing and executing the people strategy as well as elevating our People Culture. Her focus is to deliver future-oriented and holistic people experiences, leveraging globally proven initiatives tailored to our local needs, with well-being and employee happiness at the heart of it. Shweta has 20+ years of strong client facing experiences, working with organizations such as Microsoft and Wipro Ltd. Outside of the office, she enjoys catching up on non-fiction books, watching movies, and cooking for her two young daughters.
Director HR, GAIL
Mr. Ayush Gupta is a 1992 batch Electrical Engineer from IIT Roorkee and MBA in Operations Management. He has over 30 years of varied and rich experience in the field of Training and Human Resource Development, Talent Acquisition, Leadership Development, Performance Management, HRD Initiatives, Project Management, Operations and Maintenance.
He started his career with Insilco Ltd. as a GET prior to joining GAIL (India) Limited. Shri Gupta joined GAIL in the year 1998 as Dy. Manager (Electrical) at Agra and Firozabad City Gas Distribution Project. There he was involved in implementation of the city gas distribution network in Taj trapezium zone and led several initiatives for bringing down the stock loss in the region. A series of new programmes and L&D interventions including the successful Mentoring Program, Individual Development Programme (IDP) for Senior Executives and remodeling of ET Orientation Programme were launched during his tenure at GAIL Training Institute, Naida. He has successfully led the improvements in various HRD system, process and practices including the digital initiatives for better engagement and enhancement of employee experience. He has been instrumental in formulating talent acquisition strategies to build a strong human resource pipeline for the organization. He is currently also on the Board of Directors of GAIL Gas Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of GAIL.
He is recipient of the prestigious Chevening Rolls Royce Science, Innovation, Policy and Leadership fellowship from UK Government in 2013, Winner of the National Corrosion Awareness Award 2004 and Emerging HRD Thinkers Award in 2011. He is also the co-editor of the book titled 'Natural Gas Markets in India' published by Springer International and has to his credit several best papers awards for papers published and presented at national and international forums.
Senior Vice President HR & Global Head - Strategic Resourcing, Mphasis
With over 23 years of experience, Satish Rajarathnam is a seasoned Human Resources professional who has held various HR leadership positions across multiple industries. Satish has continually been at the helm of strategic resourcing, organization change management, HR Business consulting & Agile transformation, as well as leadership and talent management.
Satish is associated with several industry groups and associations such as SHRM, Agile Leadership, LEGO serious Play, PCMM, Six Sigma, ISABs India and NFNLP, among others from which he has received certifications marking him a qualified practitioner. He heads the global talent strategy team for Mphasis and currently responsible for OD, Build-Buy-Borrow talent strategy. In his previous role with Cognizant, Satish was responsible for Global Banking & Financial Services people strategy, aligning HR interventions to business priorities, and functioned as a strategic business advisor to the executive management.
Satish’s leadership experience spans across organisations such as Cognizant, HCL Technologies, and Siemens. He has also been the recipient of awards such as Indian Achievers Award 2021, the Top 100 HR Tech Minds Award, and the HR Excellence Award, from the Government of Rajasthan and Higher & Technical Education, Maharashtra. Outside his experience with HR, Satish has built a reputation as a TEDx speaker. As an entertainer and an illusionist, he has worked on over 1200 performances in association with various corporate houses and international workgroups. As part of giving back to the society he is associated with Udavum Karangal an Orphanage at Chennai and as a Corporate Advisory Board member with Chandigarh University.
Satish is a research Scholar from Swiss School of Management, Geneva and a postgraduate in General Management from the Indian School of Business (ISB) and National University of Singapore (NUS)
Founder & CEO, Saarathee
A passionate leader who believes in driving change and transforming lives. Richa comes with an experience of 2 decades across corporate and social sector. Her experience spans advertising, brand communication, product marketing , channel sales, distribution & fund raising. Richa has worked closely with customer experience and engagement teams; and has created a forte in building teams that have the prowess to craft authentic and contextual conversation to build customer engagement.
Richa was introduced to the concept of sustainability and corporate responsibility while she was working in the social sector (CRY). Thus came about Saarathee – a Customer Contact Centre that would employ and leverage PwD. With this she decided to create an impact story while delivering services which could manifest business strategy into positive outcomes for organizations across sectors. She chose to hire PwD to drive her business and change the canvas of the story for corporate India. And as an onward journey she wants more and more corporates to become Inclusive, therefore she is working towards creating India’s first dedicated EduHire Platform which aims at bridging the employment gap between skilled PwD as well as Corporates.
Vice President & Head, SaaS Alliances & Channels, Asia Pacific, Oracle
Shaakun Khanna is a highly sought-after Business Strategy & HR Transformation expert in Asia and serves as Vice President and Head of Cloud Applications Alliances, Asia Pacific, at Oracle Corporation. He is also the co-founder of Consentus Advisory.
Over the last 20 years Shaakun has been a transformation advisor to many Fortune 500 and industry leading companies. During this period Shaakun has been the Head of Right Management India, Head of IBM Smarter Workforce and the leader of Employee Engagement & Leadership Development Practice for Gallup Consulting. Over the last two decades, he has helped many organizations transform their Business Strategy, Digital Transformation, Employer branding, Talent Management, Organization Design & Development, Employee Experience, Leadership Development and Succession Planning etc.
Shaakun works specifically with large and complex businesses to help them evolve for the next level growth and succession. The unique combination of his expertise in Business Strategy, Leadership Development, Change Management, HR Technology and Business Management makes him a complete advisor for leadership assessment and development.
Shaakun carries the rich experience of managing businesses for global organizations in various leadership roles. An Accredited executive coach, Shaakun is also a Master Facilitator of the ‘Consciousness Based Leadership’ with the International Centre for Contemporary Consciousness.
An inquisitive traveler and an avid reader, Shaakun is greatly inspired by Dr. Stephen Covey and Donald O Clifton, which instills in him a great passion to transform organizations for the betterment of their Human Capital.
He is a published author and regularly speaks at leading Industry and Social events.
Consulting Partner-Inclusion Advisory, Saarathee
Sandeep Bidani is India’s 1st Specially Abled Senior HR Leader and Inclusion Champion who created the pathbreaking PwD inclusion Programs ASPIRE & BELIEVE. He was the Ex-CHRO and Regional HR leader with American Express, KPMG & IBM India/SA for over 25 yrs & a Management Consultant with KPMG India and Middle East. He has been a Consulting Partner in People & Culture Change & an Executive Coach for multiple corporates as well as for INSEAD Programs in India. He’s also a Mentor for the for AI Startups under the Telangana State AI Mission, T-AIM. In his career, he led markets like India, Middle East, Philippines and the UK in various roles managing over 38000 people across, building deep culture diversity & Inclusion understanding. Sandeep is a leading Keynote speaker on #OperationalisingInclusion #Disruption, #Leadingbyexecution and #Futureofwork for Project Management Institute, SHRM, HR Society Nepal & MDRT Global Conference at Dubai in 2020.
Head - People Function, CaratLane
A Human Resources Leader with over 14 years of experience spanning People Strategy, Leadership & Culture, Employee Relations, Business Partnering and Learning & Organization Development.
Benjamin currently heads the People Function at CaratLane Trading Pvt. Ltd. (a subsidiary of Titan Company Ltd.) where he is responsible for all things People & Culture. Before this he led the Corporate HR Business Partnering team at Titan Company Ltd. and was responsible for leading many large-scale people transformation and change initiatives. Prior to this he anchored the Leadership Development vertical at Titan Company Ltd. and was responsible for designing and delivering development programs across leadership levels. Benjamin was instrumental in creating the leadership development architecture of Titan. Earlier, he was the Lead HR Business Partner for Precision Engineering Division (now TEAL), the B2B business of Titan Company Ltd. Benjamin’s professional certifications include the Tata Business Excellence Model, Hogan Assessments, Thomas PPA and Competency Mapping (by Prof. TV Rao). In 2015, Benjamin was recognized as one of India's emerging future HR leaders by People Matters and DDI. An engineer by education, he completed his post graduate diploma in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations at XLRI, Jamshedpur before joining the corporate world.
Partner, Egon Zehnder
Pallavi Kathuria is the Managing Partner of Egon Zehnder’s India offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore and is active in the firm’s global Technology & Communications Practice. She is a trusted advisor on leadership succession and talent management for clients in the IT products and services, software, consumer Internet, and digital sectors. She is also active in the firm’s Executive Assessment and Development Practice and co-leads the Diversity and Inclusion Practice in India.
Prior to joining Egon Zehnder, Pallavi worked at Microsoft in the U.S. and India for 15 years. Previously, she was a Product Manager at Nokia in Finland.
Pallavi has a Bachelor of Engineering in electronics and communications from the Delhi Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, where she was a Fuqua scholar. Pallavi works to address inequality in India through volunteer work and diversity initiatives.
Director - BITS Pilani, Hyderabad & Off-Campus Programmes & Industry Engagement
Prof. G Sundar is the Director of BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus, and for Off-Campus Programmes and Industry Engagement. Besides managing the expansion of the Practice School Programme for the esteemed institution, he has also been leading a comprehensive transformation of the Work Integrated Learning Programmes (WILP), thereby positively impacting the learning experiences of thousands of students for several years now. After joining BITS Pilani in 1987, he went on to become a distinguished Professor in 2000. He is currently a Senior Professor and teaches courses in Thermodynamics, Quantum Chemistry, and Chemical Instrumentation.
Chief Business Officer & Founder, HYRGPT
Sameer is an experienced professional with 18 years of expertise in unlocking enterprise value through strategic initiatives and operational improvements. Having worked with renowned firms such as PwC and KPMG, he has provided valuable assistance to leading business houses, government entities, and private equity clients, delivering tangible and intangible benefits across 30+ industries.
Sameer has successfully ran and turnaround of two of their family businesses by driving revenue and profitability. As the founder of his own consultancy firm, he continues to be instrumental in advising startups and MSMEs on achieving growth and operational excellence. With a strong track record in deal advisory and business challenges, Sameer has also concluded a multi-million-dollar M&A transactions and continues to pursue further M&A and investment opportunities.
With a passion for staying ahead in the game, Sameer has worked on advanced technologies like blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. As the co-founder of Personifwy – a Generative AI company, he demonstrates leadership by driving product development, transforming operations using cutting-edge technologies. Sameer holds Bachelor's degree in engineering, MBA from SPJIMR and is certified Six Sigma Black Belt.
Founder & CEO, ThreeFish Consulting
Pradnya is the Founder and CEO of ThreeFish Consulting. She has 20+ years of experience in Strategic HR, Talent Management, Executive Assessment & Coaching. An Industrial-Organizational Psychologist by training, Pradnya has lived and worked in the United States and India. She is co-author of the book, The Secret Life of Organizations: Invisible Rules of Success for the Young Indian Professional, - which gives an insider view of what makes organizations tick, and helps young professionals take the smart path to the top. Instrumental in bringing Hogan Assessments to India, Pradnya has provided Hogan feedback to hundreds of business leaders. As the Master Distributor for Hogan Assessments in India, she is responsible for ensuring scientific rigour in the application of Hogan solutions across clients, resellers and solution partners. In the past, she has held various HR leadership roles including Director – People & Organization Capability for Microsoft India, Senior Director & Country HR Head for eFunds, Director & Country HR Head for Discovery Communications, and AVP HR for InterGlobe Enterprises. Her last role was as a Global Talent Assessment Program Manager for Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, USA. She brings rich experience across a variety of industries and deep understanding of workplace behavior and organizational dynamics to her coaching and consulting engagements. Pragmatic & result focused, Pradnya believes in human potential for transformation. At ThreeFish, she leads the design and implementation of coaching, consulting and learning solutions. Pradnya has a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of South Florida and is a member of the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology (SIOP). She is a regular attendee and presenter at the Annual SIOP Conferences. She continues to be a Life Member of the National HRD Network in India. In the past, she has served as the Vice President of the NHRDN Delhi Chapter from 2004-2006.
Global Chief People Officer, Publicis Sapient
Kameshwari Rao is the Global Chief People Officer, chartered to lead the People Success function (Human Resources) at Publicis Sapient globally.
Kameshwari’s 35+ years of leadership experience and deep expertise in working closely and strategically with people, combined with her passion for innovation and collaboration, is foundational to the culture at Publicis Sapient. Having witnessed the evolution of HR function and its transformation into today’s digital world, Kameshwari has successfully leveraged a combination of both strategic leadership as well as cultural diversity and inclusion to make Publicis Sapient a trusted and future-ready organization.
Kameshwari began her career with the Tata Group of companies, where she was instrumental in setting up an office in Bangalore – a rare achievement for women in the 80s. Her journey from finance to HR began in 2001 when she joined Publicis Sapient as a senior associate. Her determination, perseverance, and passion enabled her to rise from an entry-level position to a global leadership role.
Kameshwari's leadership style is focused on creating a holistic people experience that promotes an equitable workforce and a happy and thriving environment. She championed this ideology at Publicis Sapient by introducing people 'Happiness Index' to enable the company to listen to what their people expect from the organization. Factoring in the feedback, she instituted a fresh and dynamic approach to performance evaluations that centered around the individual and addressed all dimensions of their growth experience.
Kameshwari's journey serves as a notable example of an inspiring C-suite leader who shattered glass ceilings and broke down barriers to reach the top. Her orientation to fearlessness and having a point of view, combined with her relentless work ethic and continuous learning, has made a positive impact in the lives of those she leads.
Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer, Saarathee
Arjun Vishwanathan is a seasoned professional with over 23 years of experience across diverse sectors such as IT consulting, product marketing, Telcos, media, and KPOs. His understanding of technology, market dynamics, and customer needs has established him as a prominent figure in Digital Transformation.
As Co-founder of Saarathee, Arjun's passion fuels extensive research and analytics, yielding insights that empower organizations to create authentic disability inclusion programs. He has transformed Saarathee into an XaaS platform, providing Disability Inclusion Transformation solutions that bridge skill gaps, foster meaningful employment, and advance ESG objectives. He serves as a catalyst, propelling significant change in the domains of business and social responsibility.
CHRO, Bajaj Allianz Life
Santanu is a HR & OD professional with rich expertize of over two decades of providing vision and counsel for steering organisations through accelerated growth paths. He has the experience of managing large institutions & start-ups environment with equal ease & agility. He has spent more than sixteen years in large financial service institutions handling both life & general insurance companies and have headed the key functions of HR & Learning for Aditya Birla Health Insurance Company, SUD Life Insurance & now as the CHRO for Bajaj Allianz Life.
Santanu is able to approach the function at both strategic as well as tactical level, design and lead implementation of best-in-class human capital initiatives, contextual to the business long range plans. He is a charismatic leader and coach who focuses on creating impactful teams with a bias for action. With a flair for communicating seamlessly across all levels of an organisation, Santanu loves working on areas of developing & enhancing culture, digital innovation for employee ease, significantly enhancing Employee Engagement, Productivity and Organisational Change.
An alumnus of Army Institute of Mgmt. Kolkata, Santanu loves reading literature and listening to classical music in his spare time.
Regional HR Leader, Concentrix
Anupama is a well-rounded Human Resources professional with over 20 years of experience in developing and executing HR strategy for building high performance organization across geographies. She has a versatile career in HR having done a broad range of roles across Employee Engagement, Talent Development, Diversity, Total Rewards, M&A and Business HR.
She has demonstrated expertise in designing and driving strategic talent initiatives that have delivered business value and improved workplace culture, and employee engagement.
Recognized for her strong ability to combine functional expertise, business knowledge and data to help business stakeholders make holistic and informed decisions.
A strong advocate for inclusiveness, diversity & women in leadership, she has received ‘Young HR Professional’ award by Greentech Foundation in 2014.
CHRO, Asia-Pacific, American Tower
With over three decades of rich Strategic Business experience, Pankaj has served on executive committees as a key partner to the C-suite team to drive long-term strategic planning and organizational development by setting up future-ready workplaces. He has worked across Asia-Pacific markets nurturing talent, helping leaders at all levels to develop and grow, and enabling organizations to achieve goals via effective Human Capital Management. Pankaj has set up successful HR practices for Fortune 500 companies and start-ups by providing thought leadership on matters involving organizational development, strategic planning, HR lifecycle initiatives, capability development, management of complex workforce models, operations, labour relations, change management & transformation, employee engagement, M&A and integration.
As an advocate of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Chair of the APAC DEI Council, he is a strong believer in nurturing diverse teams across APAC that are empowered to drive our long-term success and backing that up with tangible policies to support this ecosystem. As the HR Head of American Tower, Pankaj works with the Council to provide our employees with an environment where they feel respected and valued for their uniqueness and perform at their best.
As a mentor, Pankaj strongly believes in supporting the next generation of future leaders. He works with high-potential managers, empowers them, and guides them to help them progress in their professional journey. His greatest reward is to see them rise beyond their roles to take on more challenging profiles and businesses. Over the span of his career, he has coached an edutech start-up to help set up a commercially and legally successful business. He regularly mentors young HR professionals from premier B Schools to help them navigate and build a successful HR practice in their companies. He is also called upon to teach young budding HR professionals from FMS and other institutes.
Partner, Deloitte
Japneet Sachdeva is a Partner with the Deloitte India Human Capital Consulting practice and leads the People Analytics Consulting capability in India. Prior to Deloitte, Japneet was with Accenture where she led the Organizational Analytics delivery practice for Accenture Strategy and Consulting (Capability Network) in India.
She has over 15 years of experience and has worked with multiple clients in India and across the globe helping them leverage the power of data and analytics to inform and shape their people actions spanning across areas like future workforce, reskilling, return to work, I&D, culture, well-being, and collaboration.
She is passionate about public speaking, women empowerment, and people development.
CHRO, Tata Advanced Systems
Rabeen brings in 25 years of diverse HR experience. He is currently heading the Human Resource Function of TATA Advanced Systems, India's leading private sector company in Defence & Aerospace sector.
Prior to this, Rabeen was Vice President HR at Tata Teleservices, and responsible for HR Business partnering and driving pan company HR operations. Before joining Tata Teleservices, he was Head of Talent Management for Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd catering to an amalgamated workforce from Tata Power & erstwhile Delhi Vidyut Board. Before joining the house of Tatas, Rabeen worked in NTPC Ltd, where he started his journey as a Management Trainee.
In his career, Rabeen has played a pivotal role in steering people transformation projects, HR policies & practices, steering talent management initiatives, transforming organization culture into a value driven, performance oriented, competitive & customer centric workplace. He has led multiple business critical transformation projects including mergers & acquisitions and organisation’s participation in Best Employer Surveys.
An Alumnus of Delhi School of Economics, he has equipped himself with multiple Certifications in various facets of Human Resource. Mentoring is his passion, and he has mentored talent across organisations helping them achieve greater personal & professional heights.
Author & Founder, 3A Consulting
Aarti Kelshikar is an intercultural coach and author. She is the founder of 3A Consulting and has been working in the space of leadership and cultural effectiveness since 2008. She has worked and lived in India, Singapore and the Philippines.
Aarti is a certified facilitator of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and accredited coach of The International Profiler (TIP), frameworks that help assess and develop intercultural effectiveness. She is also a certified executive coach from the international Neuro Leadership group.
Through her cultural interventions, Aarti enables executives and students to successfully transition roles, levels and geographies. She conducts workshops on developing cultural intelligence and on doing business in South-East Asia and India. She has trained senior executives from multinational corporations like Nestlé, Unilever, Proctor and Gamble, Colgate Palmolive, and Texas Instruments.
Aarti has recently published her second book titled How Women Work: Fitting in and Standing Out in Asia. Published by HarperCollins, the book observes women leaders through a pan-Asian lens providing insights on leadership and success in Asia. Her first book How India Works: MakingSense of a Complex Corporate Culture was published in 2018. The book is a guide to the cultural nuances and complexities of working with Indians.
She is on the founding board of SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) South East Asia.
Before discovering the fascinating world of intercultural coaching, Aarti worked for seven years in the area of securities market compliance with the Securities and Exchange Board of India in Mumbai and with a consulting firm in Singapore.
Aarti has a master’s in business administration from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai and a bachelor’s in commerce from Sydenham College in Mumbai.
Director Talent Acquisition and Diversity, Honeywell India
Deepti is passionate to align a firm’s goals with their talent goals, she’s contributed to ROI via talent, enhancing future readiness by hiring/growing/nurturing the right mindset.
She is an HR Professional with 19 years of experience across Talent Acquisition - Organic and Inorganic, Change Management, Global Entity Set-ups, Employer Branding, Job Mapping & Competency Framework.
She has a significant experience in adapting to the different stages of an organization maturity cycle (start-up, developing and developed), offering solutions that work best for the organization and people to the specific stage.
Deepti is focused on DE&I throughout an organization’s lifecycle.
She has worked with firms like Bank of America Continuum and Ernst & Young Global delivery services, wherein she got an opportunity to contribute towards inducting STEM talent in the organizations VIA lateral and university framework. She in her journey, worked on HR transitions / mergers and CRM /ATS implementations. She also enabled building an in-house gender-neutral tool.
With Honeywell, Deepti leads the talent agenda for India and is driven towards ensuring gender equal future. She has built a strong focus on nurturing talent right from campuses by building a playbook. Additionally functioned towards employer advocacy to enhance inherent culture of the organization.
Deepti has been awarded by Forbes as “Top 30 Talent Leader of 2023” for her contribution to corporate world and contributed actively in G20 “gender equal agenda”.
Chief People Officer, Fortude
During the past 17 years, Oshana has had the opportunity of being involved in several dimensions of Global Human Resource Management including Employer Branding, Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, Training and Development, Leadership Development, Succession Planning, HR Systems, Employee Engagement, Diversity and Inclusion, and Holistic Wellness. The year 2020 challenged Oshana to architect the HR system to suit the 100% remote work environment, which she built and rolled out to 400+ employees globally.
Oshana is currently a HR Generalist who leads a Global HR team across Fortude and Intellint. Oshana has been responsible for heading the HR function in both the Apparel and IT industries. Her greatest success to date has been setting up the global HR Function for a fast-growing global IT company to grow it from 60+ to 500+ people across 6 countries in the span of 8 years.
In 2021, Oshana embarked on her coaching career, as an independent coach, to enable people transformation. Backed with her experience in HR and certification in coaching, she aims to coach others to reach their goals.
Oshana’s passion is people, and she aims to bring out the best in them. She is also a firm believer that HR is no longer a business partner but a business leader.
Sr Vice President & Head of HR - APAC Growth markets, HCLTech
Amrita has more than two decades of experience across several domains in Human Resources at a global context.
Amrita has experience in global fast paced highly matrixed organisations as a trusted advisor, coach, and HR partner to executive leadership. Amrita has a proven track record for identifying strategies focused on hiring retention and building a performance driven culture.
Diversified experience and global exposure in managing large programs and change management.
People & Talent
Delves into everything about people & how organizations source, hire, onboard, engage, and retain talent
Culture & Experience
Explores aspects of organizational culture and how it impacts employee engagement and business success
Leadership
Provides insights into developing leadership abilities in leaders in varied organizational
settings
Business & Strategy
Business & Strategy Helps analyze the vision and mission of the organization and ingrain them into the HR consciousness
DEI&B
Enables fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion and a sense of belonging in employees
WorkTech
Celebrates path breaking innovations and cutting-edge technologies that shape all things
work
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