SHRMI Talent Conference is the can’t-miss event that puts People First
Join us virtually – to learn innovative talent strategies tailored to the realities of the world of work. Learn from engaging speakers and takeaway learnings to enrich your workplace. Network with peers and experts to get abreast on the latest trends in recruiting, nurturing, retaining and growing engaged employees at every level of your organization.
SHRM’s Talent Conference and Exposition is a unique event created especially for HR professionals & People Managers who work with talent. Attend for data-driven strategies, actionable learning, meaningful connections and endless solutions that will ensure you level-up in 2021 and beyond.
Attend SHRMI Talent 2021 for cutting-edge practices and creative solutions from Global experts to maximize Human Potential in your organization.
2500+ Attendees. 2 Day Virtual Conference with four focused Conclaves
1
Opportunity to earn
over 20 PDCs
Hear from 100+ Speakers and Domain Experts
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50+ In-depth Knowledge
Sessions
Starting in:
A Conference that focusses on YOU.
The Learning You Want. The Tools You Need to succeed.
SHRM Talent 2021 opens the door to infinite possibilities for you, your career and your Talent Strategy. Leave with renewed inspiration for the work you do every day.
President & CEO, SHRM
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Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, is President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management.
With over 300,000 members in 165 countries, SHRM is the largest HR professional association in the world, impacting the lives of 115 million workers every day.
As a global leader on the future of employment, culture and leadership, Mr. Taylor is a sought-after voice on all matters affecting work, workers and the workplace. He is frequently asked to testify before Congress on critical workforce issues and authors a weekly column, “Ask HR,” in USA Today.
Mr. Taylor’s career spans over 20 years as a lawyer, human resources executive and CEO in both the not-for-profit and for-profit space. He has held senior and chief executive roles at IAC/Interactive Corp, Viacom’s Paramount Pictures and Blockbuster Entertainment Group, McGuireWoods LLC, and Compass Group USA. Most recently, Mr. Taylor was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
He is a member of the White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and was appointed by President Donald Trump as Chairman of the President’s Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He serves on the boards of the University of Miami, Jobs for America’s Graduates and the American Red Cross and as an adviser to Safe Streets & Second Chances. He is licensed to practice law in Florida, Illinois and Washington, D.C.
Founder of Student’s Educational & Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), Educationist & Environmentalist
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Sonam Wangchuk was born in the trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh in J&K, India.
Though a Mechanical Engineer by education, he has been mostly working in the field of education reform for more than 27 years. In 1988, just after he finished his engineering studies he founded SECMOL (Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh) www.secmol.org, which aims to bring reforms in the government school system in Ladakh. In 1994 he was instrumental in the launch of Operation New Hope, a triangular collaboration of the government, village communities and the civil society to bring reforms in the government schools system. The programme involved formation of Village Education Committees to take ownership of state schools, training of teachers in child friendly ways and re-writing and publishing localised text books for Ladakh. As a result the pass percentage at 10th grade (matriculation) rose from the dismal 5% to 55% in seven years and 75% these days.
For students who still failed in their state exams he founded the SECMOL Alternative School Campus near Leh, a special school where the admission criteria is failure in exams and not grades. However with the supportive and creative environment at the school, the so called failures have excelled in their chosen fields and risen to international acclaim as entrepreneurs, film makers, politicians, teachers and so on.
As an engineer Sonam Wangchuk has been teaching innovation at the SECMOL Alternative School, where together with the students he designed and built solar heated buildings that are low cost, made of earth/mud but maintain +15 C even when the outside temperature is – 15 C in Ladakhi winters.
In order to solve the water crisis facing mountain regions due to climate change and fast melting glaciers he invented the Ice Stupa artificial glacier which stores the wasting stream waters in winter in the form of giant ice cones or stupas and releases the water in late spring as they melt... just when farmers need water.
Sonam Wangchuk was granted several awards and titles, such as :-
The prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award 2018, The GQ Men Of The Year Award for Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 in India, The Rolex Award for Enterprise 2016 in Hollywood USA, The Terra Award 2016 for World’s best Earth Buildings in Lyon France, The UNESCO Chair for Earth Architecture for India in 2014, ,: ‘Real Heroes’ Award by CNN IBN Channel in 2008, ‘Green Teacher’ Award by Sanctuary Asia Magazine in 2005, Ashoka Fellowship by Ashoka: Innovators for the Public in 2002, ‘Man of the Year’ by The Week magazine in India in 2001 and the Governors Medal by the J&K State Government in 1996.
President, The Talent Strategy Group
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Marc helps the world's biggest brands and most successful companies elevate the quality and impact of their talent. He leads transformational projects globally in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to consumer products to technology. As the founder and President of the Talent Strategy Group, he leads the firm’s global consulting, education, executive search and publishing businesses.
Marc co-authored the Harvard Business Review Publishing best-selling book One Page Talent Management, often called the “talent management bible.” Companies worldwide apply its discipline of science-based simplicity, accountability and transparency. His upcoming book 8 Steps to High Performance will be published by Harvard Business Review in July 2018.
Marc co-founded the Talent Management Institute at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan - Flagler Business School. It has become the world’s most popular executive education program on talent management with more than 3,000 graduates.
Marc publishes Talent Quarterly magazine which he founded in 2013 to help executives make smarter decisions about how to manage talent.
Prior to forming The Talent Strategy Group, Marc served as VP, Talent Management for Avon Products and led Global Leadership Consulting Practice for Aon Hewitt. He was also SVP, Leadership Development for Bank of America and a Congressional Staff Assistant.
Marc is a sought after speaker on talent management and leadership topics by both corporations and conferences. He is widely quoted on talent issues in the business media and has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Influencers in HR.
Marc founded and leads the New Talent Management Network, a non-profit HR networking and research organization that is now the world's largest talent management organization with more than 3,000 members.
Marc earned a M.B.A. from the Yale University School of Management and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington.
Chairman, ICRIER, Founder, Genpact Ltd, Chairman, Clix Capital
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Pramod is the Chairperson of Clix Capital, as well as ICRIER, an economic research think tank. He was also the Founder and CEO of Genpact ltd, and the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Skills Academy.
Earlier he was the President & CEO of GE Capital in India from 1994 to 2005, and GE Capital Asia from 1998 to 2001. He was with the General Electric Corporation in UK and the USA and Asia for over 25 years.
Pramod is considered the Pioneer of the Business Process Industry in India. He founded Genpact in 1996 and led it till 2011. Genpact is a NYSE publicly listed Global business that currently spans 26+ countries and employs over 90,000 people. Under his leadership, Genpact also pioneered this industry in Easter Europe, China and Latin America. Genpact currently has a market capitalization of approximately $8 billion and revenues of over $3 billion.
Pramod is currently the Chairman of Clix Capital, a Financial Services Business in India focused on providing digital platforms and financial services to consumers and small businesses.
He founded the Skills Academy, that focuses on providing vocational skills for the under privileged. The Skills Academy operated in over 15 states, principally in smaller towns and villages to provide vocational skills training in a wide variety of skills and occupations. He served as the Chairperson of CII’s Skills Committee for many years, and was a member of CII’s National Council.
He is the co-founder of Asha Impact, an organisation focused on Social Impact Investments and Advocacy in key areas such as Education, Waste Management, Healthcare and Financial Inclusions. He is a Strategic Advisor to Kedaara, a Private Equity firm.
He sits on the Governing Board of Help Age India, Vishwas, an NGO for handicapped children He currently serves on the Board of DLF Ltd., and in the past, has served on the Board of Bank of India and NDTV and SRF Ltd. He has been the Chairman of Nasscom and was voted IT Man of the Year by DataQuest, and Manger of the Year by EY & Co. He was also the President of TIE, NCR.
Pramod is a Chartered Accountant ( England and Wales) and an alumni of Shri Ram College of commerce.
Chairman and MD, Medanta - The Medicity
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Dr. Naresh Trehan, an Indian national, is a renowned Cardiovascular and Cardiothoracic surgeon, a graduate from King George Medical College and subsequently trained and practiced at New York University Medical Center Manhattan USA from 1971 to 1988, where he obtained a Diplomat from the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
Dr Naresh Trehan is the Chairman & Managing Director and Chief Cardiac Surgeon, MedantaTM-The MediCity, a 1500 bedded multi super speciality institute, which offers cutting edge technology and state of art treatment facilities at an affordable cost. The Institute is governed under the guiding principles of providing medical services to patients with care, compassion and commitment.
Dr. Naresh Trehan founded the Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre where he was the Executive Director. Escorts was conceptualised, created and managed by Dr. Trehan from November 1987 to May 2007.
Dr. Naresh Trehan has received many prestigious awards, including the Padma Shree and the Padma Bhushan Award, presented by the Government of India.
Dr Naresh Trehan was the President of the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery (ISMICS), Minneapolis, USA 2004-05 and has also received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from three prestigious universities.
Managing Director & CEO, Mahindra Group
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Dr. Anish Shah is currently the Deputy Managing Director and Group CFO for the Mahindra Group, with responsibility for the Group Corporate Office and full oversight of all businesses other than the Auto and Farm sectors. The Board has appointed him as the Managing Director and CEO designate for the Mahindra Group, effective Apr 2, 2021. His prior role was Group President (Strategy), where he led strategy development; built capabilities such as digitisation and data sciences; enabled synergies across Group companies and managed the Risk and performance review organisations.
Anish was President and CEO of GE Capital India from 2009-14, where he led the transformation of the business, including a turnaround of its SBI Card joint venture. His career at GE spanned 14 years, during which he held several leadership positions at GE Capital’s US and global units. As Director, Global Mortgage, he worked across 33 countries to drive growth and manage risk. As Senior Vice President (Marketing and Product Development) at GE Mortgage Insurance, he led various growth initiatives and played a key role in preparing the business for an IPO, as a spinoff from GE. In his initial years with GE, Anish also led Strategy, eCommerce and Sales Force Effectiveness and had the unique experience of running a dot-com business within GE. Anish also received GE’s prestigious Lewis Latimer Award for outstanding utilisation of Six Sigma in developing a “Digital Cockpit.”
He also has diverse experience with global businesses beyond GE. He led Bank of America's US Debit Products business, where he launched an innovative rewards program, led numerous initiatives in payment technology and worked closely with various teams across the Bank to enhance value for the customer.
As a strategy consultant at Bain & Company in Boston, he worked across multiple industries, including banking, oil rigs, paper, paint, steam boilers and medical equipment. His first role was with Citibank in Mumbai, where he issued bank guarantees and letters of credit as Assistant Manager, Trade Services.
Anish holds a Ph.D from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business where his doctoral thesis was in the field of Corporate Governance. He also received a Masters degree from Carnegie Mellon and has a post-graduate diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has received various scholarships, including the William Latimer Mellon Scholarship, Industry Scholarship at IIMA, National Talent Search and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.
Country Head - Softbank India
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I’m a professional entrepreneur who truly loves the challenge of shaping the industry transformations of mobile internet, satellite television, renewable energy, digital unicorns, electric vehicles etc.
Always with a star team and a positive energy to create world leading businesses with a profound societal impact. Excellence with integrity is my motto!
I am the Country Head - SoftBank India supporting SoftBank Group and Vision Fund as one of the largest investors of $15bn in over 25 AI focused portfolio companies in India. I support the entrepreneurs and CEOs to address the regulatory and government issues.The key portfolio companies are OLA, OYO, Emeritus, Lenskart, Grofers, Snapdeal, WeWork, Delhivery, InMobi, Firstcry, Uber, Swiggy, Unacademy etc.
I coach them for effective execution of the profitable growth strategy and embed a viable business model to enable the businesses to 10x-20x scale-up to their full potential in India and expand to many international markets. I support them in building a robust leadership team, e2e digitization plan, an admired brand, and a robust corporate governance.
Earlier I was the Executive Chairman of SB Energy from 2015 and achieved over 5GW of renewable energy - solar, wind and hybrid - capacity in India.
Previously I was Managing Director and CEO, Bharti Airtel, for operations in 20 countries in Asia and Africa till 2015. I led the creation of the unique business model, an admired brand, high performance culture and the operations to scale from 2m to 400m customers to be the third largest telco in the world. I led formation of Airtel TV leader in DTH service and Indus the largest tower company in the world for achieving major infrastructural synergies.
I started my career in HR in 1979 with the DCM Shriram and held business leadership positions in the Foods, Chemicals, Refrigeration and Honda JV etc. After 16 years in the manufacturing sector, I led a mobile startup Escotel to achieve market leadership in 3 important markets in India. I was the Board Member of GSMA in 2008 and 2012 and the Chairman, CII Task Force on Ease of Doing Business and now Chair of CII Unicorn Forum for attracting new tech investments in India.
Overall, my 43 years of work experience is divided between the manufacturing, telecom, renewable energy, and now digital sectors. I have worked in US, Europe, China, Japan and build businesses in 25 countries in Asia Pacific and Africa.
Airtel got the “Company of the year” Award by The Economic Times in 2007 and “Airtel” became no 1 brand across all categories in India. I was adjudged “Telecom Man of the Year” in 2000, “Distinguished Alumni” by SRCC Delhi University and “Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2020.
I hold degrees in Commerce, Law and MBA from Delhi University. I attended "Executive Management Program” at Michigan and “Advanced Management Program” at Wharton.
Group Director, Birla Carbon; Director, Chemicals; and Director, Group Human Resources, Aditya Birla Group
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Dr. Santrupt Misra is currently the Group Director, Birla Carbon; Director, Chemicals; and Director, Group Human Resources for the Aditya Birla Group, a Global Indian Conglomerate, in the league of Fortune 500.
A business leader and an HR Professional of standing, with over three decades of experience in global business leadership, corporate governance, organizational transformation, non-profit leadership, and Human Resource development, Santrupt has worked at Board level for over two decades as Non-Executive Director and Executive Director in publicly listed companies, unlisted companies, and not for Profit Organizations both in India and overseas. He is a Director in several companies of the Aditya Birla Group including Aditya Birla Capital Ltd., Grasim, and Birla Carbon Thailand, which are publicly listed companies. Dr Misra has recently been appointed as a Director on the Board of Karmayogi Bharat. Mission Karmayogi has been launched by the Government of India with the objective to create a competent responsive civil service which can help drive the agenda of effective and efficient public service delivery. He served as an Independent Director on the Board of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. , a leading Government of India enterprise, and as the Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela.
He is also on Governing Bodies of professional organisations/associations such as the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) U.S.A. He was also on the Board of the Xavier’s Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar and the Worldwide ERC, USA. He also served as a member of the SHRM Certification Commission, USA.
Dr Misra also serves as the Chairman of the Project Advisory Committee for the ‘Ekamra Kshetra Scheme’, an Odisha State Government project of immense significance for the heritage of Odisha. He is also a Member to the Governing Council (GC) of the United Nations Global Compact Network India (UN GCNI).
Under his leadership Birla Carbon has emerged as a global leader in the carbon black space from its beginnings as a regionally focused carbon black player. He has been instrumental in developing a strong employer brand for the Aditya Birla Group, which has been named as the Best Employer in India, Great Place for Leaders to Work, and Top Company for Leaders by Aon Hewitt, Fortune Magazine, and RBL Group, respectively at different times.
Dr. Misra holds two Post Graduate degrees in Political Science and in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations, from the Utkal University & the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, respectively. In addition, he also holds two PhDs, from India & UK, in Public Administration and Industrial Relations, respectively, and an honorary D.Sc. degree from Aston University, U.K. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources (NAHR), USA; Hon. Fellow of the Coaching Federation of India; an Eisenhower Fellow, an Aston Business School Fellow, an AIMA Fellow and a Commonwealth Scholar.
MD & CEO, Future Brands Ltd Author, Columnist, Social Commentator
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Santosh is the Managing Director and CEO of Future Brands Ltd. Future Brands is a branding services company that creates and manages a portfolio of brands and offers consulting services in the brand and consumer space. Before taking up this assignment, he was the President of McCann-Erickson, one of India’s premier advertising agencies. A post graduate from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, his interest lies in studying the evolving nature of consumer culture in India. He wears two hats, one as an authoritative voice in matters relating to brands and consumers and the other as a social commentator, making sense of the complex changes India is undergoing.
He has served on the board of ING Vysya Bank and is currently on the boards of Future Consumer Products Limited, Oxfam India, D.B. Corp. Ltd and Breakthrough. He is also a member of the Governing Councils of Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad & Praxis Business School, Kolkata. He has been writing a weekly column in the Times of India for over 16 years and is the author of the bestselling Mother Pious Lady-Making Sense of Everyday India, a book that examines how the everyday life of middle class India has evolved.
Founder & Chairman, Harappa Education
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Pramath is the Founder and Chairman of Harappa Education, which strives to become India’s largest online institution focused on teaching habits and skills critical to workplace success in the 21st Century. He has helped establish multiple high-quality institutions of higher education in India over the past 20 years. Pramath is the Founding Dean and a member of the Executive Board of ISB, and also Founder and Trustee of the acclaimed Ashoka University, a liberal arts university.
Padmashree 2021 D&I Consultant , Founder Ask Insights. Board Member National Advisory Committee Election Commission of India
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Dr. Niru Kumar is a Medical Doctor, Psychologist, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant, and an NLP expert.
This year she has been honoured with the Padma Shree, one of the highest civilian awards, based on work done in Diversity and Inclusion. She is also the National Icon and Board Member of Election Commission of India. She has been powerfully impacting and transforming lives through a unique blend of expertise in modern medicine, psychology, coaching skills, and NLP.
She is a Mars Venus Coach, trained by Dr.John Gray (author of Men are from Mars Women are from Venus) himself. Her other prestigious international partnerships include TGIG (The Gender Intelligence Group) led by Barbara Annis, FutureWorks institute led by Margaret Regan, Dr.Alan Richter of QED Consulting and Jennifer Brown.
A pioneer in transforming global organizations and multi-cultural individuals to enhance capabilities in an inclusive environment!
Her extensive global projects and international alliances with top thoughts leaders in the field of D&I, helps her brings the knowledge and best practices from across the world to India. She then skilfully applies it to the Indian context.
Dr. Niru Kumar is a certified and trained NLP Master Practitioner trained from Dr. Richard Bandler, who introduced NLP to the world. Dr.Niru is also a CHI Certified Teacher and a Practitioner of Hypnosis adding greater value and effectivity to her programs.
Dr. Niru’s sessions are one of its kind as she skilfully uses Diversity, NLP and Hypnotherapy techniques to bring profound and authentic transformation in personal and professional lives of the participants.
SHRM-SCP, Chief Global Development Office, SHRM
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Nick Schacht is a highly experienced executive with more than three decades of experience in professional services, education, and corporate learning and development. He has a history of driving product innovation, growth and profitability and he has led organizations operating worldwide.
Nick is Chief Global Development Officer for SHRM, the world's largest HR professional society. Before joining SHRM, Nick was the founder and CEO of KnowCyber, a learning and development company focused on improving the cybersecurity-related skills of people in all types of organizations worldwide. Prior to KnowCyber, Nick was President and Chief Operating Officer for PetroSkills, a provider of training and development services to the worldwide petroleum industry. Prior to that, he was CEO and President of Learning Tree International, a publicly traded provider of IT and management learning and development. Nick was also the President of Global Learning Systems, a start-up focused on e-Learning and digital content. He served in a variety of capacities at ESI International, culminating in his role as President when ESI was sold to the Institute for International Research (IIR) and then as Group President for the Americas for IIR. He has been a Research Fellow at the Logistics Management Institute, and began his career as a U.S. Navy Supply Officer, on the headquarters staff of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.
Nick graduated with honors from the U.S. Naval Academy, and holds Master's degrees in Administration from the University of Maryland University College, and Information Systems Technology from The George Washington University.
Padma Shree Awardee, Mountaineer, Adventurer, Explorer
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Ajeet Bajaj is an adventurer and explorer and is the first Indian to have completed the Polar Trilogy which entails skiing to the North Pole, to the South Pole and across Greenland. He is the first Asian to have rafted and kayaked some of the most challenging rivers of the world spanning six continents. He has won a bronze medal in the national games for kayaking and one silver and two bronze medals in international rafting competitions in Switzerland and Russia. He captained the international team for world white water rafting championships in Turkey in 1994. Ajeet has done a number of first descents of rivers and is considered a pioneer of river rafting, kayaking, expedition skiing and sea kayaking in India. Ajeet has had the proud privilege of conducting fifty courses and expeditions for the Indian Armed Forces including special forces in river rafting and white water kayaking down some of the most turbulent rivers in country
Ajeet is a PADI ( Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certified rescue diver and qualified as a mountaineering instructor from ENSA, French National School of Skiing and Alpinism. Ajeet scaled Mount Everest with his daughter Deeya on May 16th, 2018 from Tibet becoming the first Indian Daughter Father duo to have accomplished this. They are the first parent child team in the world to have climbed Mount Everest from the harder North side. The duo also gave a strong message about the girl child in India that given the opportunity and nurturing, girls can attain great heights. Ajeet and his daughter have climbed six of the seven summits, the highest mountain on every continent.
Ajeet is the founder and Managing Director of Snow Leopard Adventures Pvt. Ltd., three times National Tourism Award winning organization He is Co-founder/ Director of Adventure Nation.com, India’s leading online adventure tourism portal with yatra.com He is Founder, Planet Harmony, an initiative to integrate to the mainstream children from disturbed areas such as J&K, North East and Naxal affected areas.
Ajeet has served as member of Global Sustainable Tourism Council, a United Nations World Tourism Organisation. Ajeet was Chairperson of the Camping Policy & Caravan Tourism Policy for Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India. Ajeet is fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Fellow, Aspen Global Leadership Network. Ajeet was invited to participate in the Champions of Change Event with the Prime Minister of India in August 2017. Ajeet has served two terms as President, Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI).
Ajeet Bajaj was conferred the Padma Shri in 2012 by the President of India. He has been felicitated with the 'Hall of Fame' award by the Adventure Tour Operators Association of India and the ‘Hall of fame’ by the “Indian Association of Tour Operators’.
Co-Founder & Director, Speaking Minds
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Raga’s story of coming out at 50, made headlines and today she is a much sought after speaker internationally. Her story, that she wrote during lockdown, is now being adapted into a feature film.
Raga Olga D’silva is the Co-Founder and Director of Speaking Minds, a speaker engagement agency and international bureau, and is an expert in the field of corporate speaking and B2B content curation. She is also a consultant and provides advise on taking up speaking as a profession and how to be a published author.
Prior to setting up her own consultancy, Raga has worked in senior positions in advertising in India and New Zealand and has been the recipient of several prestigious awards globally.
Raga is a prolific speaker and influencer on issues such as diversity & inclusion, unconscious bias and doing business in India. Raga is the author of ‘Untold Lies’ and a Trustee on the board of children’s charity CRY UK. Raga was the first woman of Indian origin to be on the Board of India New Zealand Business Council in 2004, a position she held for 3 years. She has appeared on BBC, Channel 4, Sky TV, ITV, TVNZ and various media platforms in a professional and personal capacity.
As the South Asian Ambassador for Diabetes UK, she works on helping the community in its fight against the disease. She holds positions on many boards, including a member on the D&I at Sony Pictures.
She is finally out and proud with her long term same gender partner and a mother of twins. She divides her time between London, Mumbai and New Zealand.
Managing Partner, Global Training Transformation
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As Managing Partner of Global Training Transformation, Susan is an internationally recognized Speaker, award-winning Talent Development Expert, and Author. In the last 20+ years Susan has spoken in over 40 countries on 6 continents, developed and trained over 500 workshops and helped over 150,000 people around the world transform their personal and professional lives.
Susan specializes in Training Architecture to improve the performance of people, custom designing programs in The Art of Persuasion, Leading with Emotional Intelligence, Managing Generations in the Workplace and, Resilience, to name a few. She has worked with such organizations as Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Philips, Medronic, and SABIC to design global training programs that raise individual and organizational performance. Her experience ranges from Healthcare, Medical Devices, Banking, Mining, Pharma, Timber, Oil & Gas as well as training the Ministers of several foreign nations.
Susan is an Instructional Designer and Master Trainer. Global Training Transformation’s programs have won the CSTD Gold Award for Excellence in Training (Vendor Category) as well as having a Leadership Program custom designed for a Central Asian client named as one of the top 5 Leadership programs in the world by HR.com
President - Global HR, Lupin
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Yashwant Mahadik (Yash) a seasoned global HR professional with over 30 years of experience in top-notch multinational corporations. Has established a track record of success in all his roles and assignments. His experience is diverse and varies across industries/sectors (Technology, Consumer and Healthcare) and geographies (India, UK, Japan, USA, ASEAN and Europe).
His strengths and areas of expertise include; Strategy (Business, Workforce and HR functional), HR and Business Transformation, Leadership Development, Organization and Culture building, Capability Building, Workforce Design & Planning, Talent Management and Succession Planning, Merger/Acquisition Integration and Executive Coaching. He has led/is leading global transformation programs and initiatives in J&J, Philips, SunPharma and Lupin at enterprise level. He is proficient and enthusiastic about evolving social and digital technologies and has a strong presence on social media platforms such as Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, etc and has a blog of his own (www.yashmahadik.com). He is recognized amongst top 50 most powerful HR professionals coming from India and is a leading HR thought leader who has worked in association with leading academicians in USA for conceptualizing and executing global strategic initiatives in areas of Human Resource Management.
Has a very high social (development sector) orientation - believes in sharing his earnings and time with social developmental causes related to education for the underprivileged. Is an avid golfer and enjoys travelling and reading. He is a very keen photographer and is a creator of many professional level, highly creative images using digital photography equipment and technologies. He is incubating his new and personal venture "Yash Mahadik Photography" in dedication of a noble wildlife conservation cause.
Executive Coach & Organization Consultant
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David is an HR professional with over 34 years of experience with GE, American Express and Xerox. Starting his career in sales, he discovered his true calling, nine years later, in developing people and building leaders. In 1992, he made a conscious career transition into the field of people development and never looked back for the next 25 years. Over this period, David grew into a global HR leader at GE through various roles of progressive responsibility. In 2017, he retired to pursue a new chapter in his life as a coach and an independent consultant aiming to transform people and organizations.
David has an art for helping leaders grow. Through his career at GE, he helped to build an international leadership bench, personally hiring and developing many senior business and functional leaders in key global markets. He developed a passion for coaching and had the opportunity to work closely with a variety of GE executives across the globe as they evolved and advanced in their careers.
Today, David resides in southern Wisconsin, USA with his wife, Susan. He spends his time helping his clients see themselves for what they can be while he continuously learns to be a better coach. David also volunteers his time, serving on the board of Vision Forward Association, a ‘not for profit’ organization that helps transform the lives of the blind and visually impaired.
Corporate Secretary, Chief of Staff & Head, Government Affairs, SHRM
Emily M. Dickens, J.D., serves as SHRM's Corporate Secretary and Chief of Staff. She is the executive responsible for coordinating staff to implement the CEO's vision, serving as corporate secretary for the SHRM Board and subsidiary boards, as well as managing external partnerships and providing oversight for the Government Affairs division.
Dickens is an attorney with significant and progressive experience in government, higher education and the non-profit sector. She has served as a member of the leadership team at the University of North Carolina system, the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Her prior roles include general counsel, chief relationship officer, senior vice president, vice president for public policy and assistant vice president for federal relations. Dickens has also worked at Duke University and Fayetteville State University in administrative and external affairs roles.
Emily is actively engaged in board service. She formerly served on the Fayetteville/Cumberland (NC) Chamber of Commerce (Secretary of the Board), the Cumberland County Workforce Development Board, the North Carolina Partnership for Defense Innovation Board, and the Educational Advancement Foundation. She is currently a member of the Advisory Council of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), the Advisory Board of the College of Arts and Sciences at North Carolina Central University, and chairs the International HBCU Task Force for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
She is a graduate of North Carolina Central University and North Carolina Central University School of Law.
President & Group CHRO, Piramal Group.
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Vikram Bector is the President and Group Chief Human Resources Officer for the Piramal Group.
Vikram has over 30 years of experience across diverse sectors like IT, Financial Services, Consulting, Automotive and Pharmaceuticals. He has previously worked with big global Indian conglomerates and MNCs like – Reliance Industries Limited, Tata Motors, Cipla, Deloitte, Satyam Computers and the Aditya Birla Group.
In addition to core HR, he has a deep expertise in Mergers & Acquisitions and leading change initiatives globally. Under his stewardship many Piramal Group companies have made it to the top of the Best Employer Lists. Piramal Group has recently been featured as a top employer in the Forbes list, having been ranked at number 32 in the global list.
Vikram is a distinguished executive coach and a facilitator.
Executive Director HR, HUL
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Anuradha (Anu) is a member of the Management Committee of HUL as Executive Director HR and Vice President HR, Unilever South Asia. She is also a member of the Unilever Global HR Leadership Team.
She passed out of XLRI in 1999 and joined Hindustan Unilever Ltd. as a Management Trainee. Anu spent the first 14 years of her career in HUL, after which she worked at Unilever’s headquarters in London for six years, as Executive Assistant to the former CHRO, and as Vice President HR, Home Care, where she shaped the organisational and cultural transformation of the business globally. She has strong M&A experience and has also led the Global Talent Attraction and Employer Brand agenda for Unilever.
Her purpose is to spark magic between people, passion, and opportunity – for the benefit of the business, of society and for us all. Anu is really passionate about leadership development and is a strong voice advocating for more inclusive businesses and communities.
Anu is the Co-Chair of the FICCI HR Committee and the Chairperson of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee, Bombay Chamber of Commerce. In addition, she is a Board member of NHRDN India, a member of the CII National Committee for HR and Leadership and sits on the UNICEF, South Asia Youth Skills Regional Steering Committee. She was recognized among India’s Most Powerful Women in Business by Business Today in 2020.
She is married to Harsha who is in a Consulting career and has a 11-year-old son Rishi. As a family they love to travel & discover new places and cultures. Anuradha’s other interests include reading, and she follows tennis passionately.
Managing Director (India & APAC), Coursera
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Raghav leads Coursera in India and APAC. He is responsible for growing Coursera’s consumer and enterprise business in the region, thereby bringing the world’s best education to learners across Asia Pacific.
Raghav has 20 years of experience across consumer, internet and management consulting industries in India, Southeast Asia and Europe. Previously, Raghav was India Country Manager at BlaBlaCar, an inter-city carpooling service. As a management consultant for 15 years, Raghav led the Retail Practice of Strategy& (erstwhile Booz & Co.) in India, and served as President of Technopak Advisors.
Raghav holds an MBA from INSEAD in France. He did his post graduation in fashion business management from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in New Delhi
Chief Executive Officer
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.
Founder & CEO, Harappa Education
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Shreyasi’s journey to entrepreneurship, and higher education, is itself symbolic of the diversity and opportunities of modern careers. She is currently Founder & CEO, Harappa Education - an online education institution that aims to become a necessary and high-quality learning destination for all young professionals
She began her career as a journalist, and spent more than 10 years in media, across news agencies, broadcast and specialty print media. She was the editor of the Indian edition of Inc., the iconic American magazine on entrepreneurship. The magazine was consistently commended for its benchmark production values, editorial quality and fresh storytelling. Her fascination for entrepreneurship, especially around tech-enabled scale businesses, was seeded at this time.
Shreyasi has written two books on entrepreneurship, including The Wealth Wallahs, which profiledIndia’s first-generation wealth creators and a new breed of wealth managers. She was recognized with the Young Woman Author Award by India’s Women Enterprise Awards for the book. Her second book, The Girl Who Thinks In Numbers, is a children’s book, and tells the real-life story of a woman entrepreneur. She has also been a columnist for Mint, where she wrote two columns, Surviving Start-Ups and Art of Work.
A few years ago, Shreyasi switched to higher education, driven by the opportunity to help build a women’s-only management program. She set up the program’s Careers, Mentorship and Executive Education initiatives. She has also taught effective writing, business communication and critical thinking at several universities and programs across India.
Shreyasi is an alumnus of the Lady Shri Ram College For Women and the Indian Institute of Mass Communication.
CHRO, Citi South Asia
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Shweta is the Chief Human Resources Officer for Citi South Asia and is a key member of Citi’s India Management Committee and Asia Pacific HR Leadership Team.
She is a business focused HR leader with an international career. In her over 16 years with Citi, Shweta has done several roles including HR Advisor for various businesses across Institutional Clients Group (ICG), Global Consumer Bank (GCB), Global Functions (GF) and Operations & Technology (O&T) and specialist roles in Talent, Leadership development and Learning.
In her current role, she is Citi’s senior most HR officer in South Asia, covering India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Prior to her current role, she has worked across the region covering several markets, based in Hong Kong and Singapore. She moved to Hong Kong in 2014 as the Head of Talent & Diversity for Asia Pacific, responsible for identifying and implementing initiatives around Talent Assessment & Development and leading the Diversity agenda for Citi’s Asia Pacific franchise. Since her taking over, she led the rollout of several initiatives including ‘My Career’ which aims to empower employees to take charge of their career, Asia’s Inspiring Women Leaders Program intended to strengthen female pipeline, recognized several employee networks, and played a key role in the equalization of benefits for domestic partners.
Shweta has also worked as the Regional HR Advisor for the Global Consumer Bank based in Singapore, where she worked with Consumer business leaders across Asia Pacific to provide end to end HR advisory and support.
In the early part of her career, Shweta was based in Mumbai as the Head of HR for O&T and Global Functions for Citi South Asia. In her earlier stint, she led Talent and Leadership Development at Citi South Asia, where she was also responsible for Citi’s entry level hiring strategy.
Shweta is a certified Coach and an accredited Leadership trainer at Citi. Her other professional certifications include trainer for Myer Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and SHL’s Occupational Testing.
Prior to joining Citi, Shweta has worked with Colgate Palmolive and Unilever. She is an Economics graduate and holds a Master’s degree in Human Resources from XLRI - Xavier School of Management. She is married and has a thirteen-year-old son. Her hobbies include outdoor sports and travelling.
Advisor on Board
SHRM India
Shaakun Khanna is Advisor on Board with SHRM and specializes in HR Transformation, SkillsBased Organizations, Employee Experience, Talent Management, and HR Technology. With 25 years of comprehensive experience across India, APAC, and the Middle East, he has built a solid reputation in HR consulting, technology transformation, and strategy development, particularly within industries such as IT, professional services, consumer electronics, and banking.
In his recent role as Vice President and Head of HCM strategy and transformation for Oracle Corporation in Asia Pacific, Shaakun managed ecosystems to successfully implement Oracle Human Capital Management and other SaaS solutions, while cultivating relationships with key executives. Previously, as Head of HCM Strategy & Transformation, he led numerous HR transformation projects, securing key deals and enhancing Oracle’s market presence. His leadership at Right Management India as Country Head involved managing talent management initiatives and overseeing the country’s P&L.
Shaakun also served as Country Head at IBM Kenexa, where he built a significant consulting business and led projects focused on employee engagement and leadership assessment. Earlier in his career, he established the 'Strengths-Based Leadership Development' practice at Gallup Consulting and engaged with high-stakes clients like Microsoft and Tata Group.
Shaakun holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Delhi University. He is a Certified Strength Performance Executive Coach and is pursuing ICF Coach Certification. Additionally, he is certified in the Gallup Q12 Employee Engagement Model. With a proven track record of driving organizational effectiveness through innovative, technology-driven solutions, Shaakun is well-equipped to partner with organizations in their HR transformation journeys
Former Secretary to the GOI, Ministry of Textiles & CEO, Sansad TV
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CHRO, Sony Pictures Networks India
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“To believe in heroic makes heroes” Benjamin Disraeli - Driven by the purpose to strive for excellence, Manu focuses on nurturing ecosystems wherein individuals challenge their own, as well their team’s limits, to drive the growth of the organization and the universe around them.
With a career spanning over two plus decades, across multiple industries and countries, Manu has steered workplace & people agenda of globally dynamic organizations likes Sony Pictures, Coca- Cola, American Express & GE, specializing in roles like Head HR, Talent & Development, Mergers & Acquisitions, HR Transformation, Change & Digital Innovation. She has also operated in board positions wherein, she was/is entrusted to safeguard the company's interest as it pertains to license to operate and sustain in the marketplace. Manu is a graduate of the GE Human Resources Leadership Program (#HRLP) and started her career as a Finance Analyst with Tata Unisys.
Apart from corporate endeavors, Manu is an active industry activist and member of various forums like Co-Chairperson of the CII Western Region Leadership & HR Committee, Member of CII – National Leadership & HR Committee, Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) – Asia Pacific Advisory Board, LNOD Advisory Council, Chandigarh University Corporate Advisory Board, Jombay Board of Directors and AIMA YLC. She is also an active participant in various country growth efforts, such as #Startup India and a regular speaker at industry forums, wherein she passionately delivers insights on Leadership and HR Transformation, Change Management and Human Capital Index, amongst other key topics.
Manu is a qualified MBTI, Six Sigma professional, Instruction Designer & Facilitator on variety of leadership & professional skills subjects. She has acquired her bachelor's in Finance, Statistics & Economics and master’s in human resources from Symbiosis Center of Management & HRD, India.
#GlobalHR #ChangeAgent #HRTransformation #StartupInvestor #BoardMember #TalentManagement #M&A #CultureTransformation
Former Vice President & HR, SAP, India
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Shraddha is a leader with extensive experience in designing and executing the people strategy for building high-performance organization for SAP’s 13,000+ workforce in India. Additionally, to foster the start-up ecosystem, she commits her time as the Advisor of the SAP Start up Studio, an accelerator program of SAP Labs India.
Under her leadership, SAP Labs India has ranked #1 in the India’s Best Companies to Work for by the Great Place to Work Institute in 2018 & 2019, along with being the Best Workplaces for Women and for Culture of Innovation and Certified as a Top Employer for 2019, 2020 & 2021. She was also awarded the Women Leadership Award by Observe Now in 2020, the Exceptional Women of Excellence 2017 by Women Economic Forum and is among Top 20 most voted HR Role Models in India in 2018. She is passionate about Future of work, Leadership, Inclusion, nurturing Start-ups and recently co-authored the book Why Blend In When You Can Stand Out?. She believes, that in order to change the game, you have to change the frame!
Country Head - HR, DBS India.
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Mr. Kishore Poduri, is currently the Country Head of the HR function at DBS India. He has over 23 years of experience within the financial services, ITES, manufacturing industries and the government sectors.
Under his leadership, DBS Bank has been recognized Aon Best Employers – India 2018, LinkedIn Top Companies – where India wants to work now, 2018 and has been Certified as Great place to work – 2018.
Prior to DBS Bank, Kishore Poduri served as Head - HR & Administrative Services at eClerx, one of the few listed KPOs in India, where he lead the Human Resources, Administration, Knowledge Management and Quality teams. He was also the Regional head for Human Resources, at HDFC bank, where he looked after the HR responsibilities across South and Eastern regions for the bank. Kishore had also brief stints at TATA Motors, where he was the HR Business partner for the Auto manufacturing unit at Pune, and served as Commissioned officer in the Aviation branch of the Indian Navy.
He has a Masters in Business Administration degree, with a specialization in human resources from the Symbiosis Centre for Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune (India) and a Bachelors of Science degree, with a specialization in computer science from Nagarjuna University (India).
Head - HR, Global R&D & Biotech, COE Lead Talent Mgmt. & Leadership Devt., Lupin Ltd.
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• Has more than 24+ years of implementation experience in the arena of Strategic HR across Indian, American as well as German Multinationals.
• Currently the Diversity Champion of the Company along with being the Chairperson of ICC.
• Industry exposure spans Automobile, Manufacturing, FMCG as well as Pharma and Biotechnology. She has successfully managed implementation of HR processes as well as Change Management initiatives in cross cultural environments across geographies.
• Specific areas of specialization include primarily HR Interventions around Leadership Development, Diversity & Inclusion, Competency Mapping, Performance Management, Talent Management as well as OD Interventions.
• Has served in the Core Senior Management Teams of companies for the last 14+ years.
• Won National Championship for Young Managers by AIMA.
• Certified Diversity Professional, GPHR Qualified, Certified in multiple tool like OPQ & MQ by SHL, PI, Mercer Job Evaluation, Competency Mapping. Possess Diploma in Training & Devt. From ISTD along with Masters in Economics from Presidency College, Kolkata and MBA from S P Jain, Mumbai.
• Part of the HR & IR Core Committee of CII and MCCIA.
• Is a self-confessed fiction buff, movie critic and a yoga enthusiast. Currently dabbling into Blogging.
Former Director, IOCL
Advisor-NSDC
Mr. Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra is Director (Human Resources) on the Board of Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) with effect from 19.2.2018. Prior to this, he was IndianOil’s Executive Director in charge of West Bengal State Office. A Mechanical Engineering graduate from BITS, Pilani, with a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, Mr. Mohapatra joined IndianOil in 1987 and has since worked on varied assignments, including Terminal Operations, Supply Chain Management & Logistics. With in-depth knowledge and acumen in Supply Chain & Logistics, he had been associated with evacuation of finished products from IndianOil’s domestic refineries, and product upliftment agreements with stand-alone refiners as well as other oil marketing companies (OMCs).
Mr. Mohapatra was also one of the chief architects of the auto fuel quality (BS-III/BS-IV) upgradation programmes of OMCs in India. Between April 2010 and Jan. 2012, he headed the Operations function of IndianOil’s Maharashtra State Office, which oversees the largest number of bulk storage terminals & depots in a State. As Managing Director of IndianOil(Mauritius) Ltd., the Company’s overseas subsidiary, during 2012-2015, Mr. Mohapatra led a team of young professionals, registering sizeable growth in market share and profitability. He was also on the Board of Mer Rouge Oil Storage Terminal, a joint venture formed by four MNCs to set up modern oil storage facilities in Mauritius. Under his inspiring leadership as head of IndianOil’s West Bengal State Office, the OMCs released a record 10.5 lakh PMUY (Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana) connections in the first 116 days of the scheme, that is, over 9,000 new connections a day.
Always eager to try out new things, Mr. Mohapatra achieved cashless transaction facilities at almost all Indian Oil fuel stations in West Bengal State and piloted a smart auto-fuel complex that has come up at Rajarhat in Kolkata. Being a person with human touch, Mr. Mohapatra initiated his direct interaction with Young Officers of different functions in the State Office, which has been greatly appreciated. He also conceptualized and launched the now acclaimed Fab-14, which is a novel mentoring system within the channel partners. Widely travelled in Europe, USA, Africa and Southeast Asia, Mr. Mohapatra presented papers in several national and international forums and published a number of articles in international journals and supply chain reference books
Head - HR, The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited
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Archana Chadha is the Head of Human Resources for HSBC, India and is responsible for driving HSBC’s People strategy to support the growth of India businesses in a rapidly changing and digital environment.
An accomplished HR leader with a career spanning over two decades in HSBC India, Archana has rich and extensive experience across different businesses including Retail Banking, Securities Services and Human Resources. She has been instrumental in leading professionals to drive large scale strategic initiatives and support businesses by enabling change, creating leadership depth and instituting a strong performance and values culture
Having worked across multiple cross geographical projects along with her diverse experience in business and functional roles, Archana reflects an agile and culturally adaptable mindset. She has partnered HR Leadership in India by building a strong leadership bench, rationalizing and repurposing the workforce and facilitating culture change - thereby creating a nimble and digital ready workforce.
Prior to taking up her current role at HSBC, Archana was Head of Performance and Rewards, HSBC India and responsible for the pay and performance delivery to all of HSBC’s Businesses and Entities in India.
HSBC, India has recently been named amongst the Top 25 Best Companies to Work for, and amongst the 20 Most Respected Companies in India. She is committed to leverage her strengths to take these achievements to greater heights.
Head of Sales, Indeed India
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Sashi Kumar is the India Head for Indeed.com - The World's #1 Job Search Engine. A seasoned Leader with over 18 years of experience, Sashi has handled diverse portfolios including New Product Evangelization, Enterprise Sales Management and International Sales. He specialises in the Internet Industry, Recruitment Solutions and HR Automation. Sashi's in-depth knowledge and vast experience in the Indian Recruitment Industry has made him a go-to person when it comes to understanding how companies can tailor their recruitment strategy and ensure success in the very competitive Indian Talent Search Market.
CHRO, Hindustan Times Media Group
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Paras is a seasoned HR Leader, backed by 19 years’ experience in organizations ranging from global to local, start-up to mature, manufacturing to retail and listed to not-for-profit organizations. Currently he is CHRO at Hindustan Times Media Group. Post Graduate from Symbiosis International University, Paras is passionate about telling stories and sharing his experiences in variety of conferences, webinars, B-School events and social media.
Before joining HT Media, Paras was Head, Group HR at Motherson Group and responsible for managing the HR function for the Group’s 1,35,000 employees across 41 countries. Prior to which, he worked for 17 years at Aditya Birla Group in various HR leadership roles across sectors, companies & countries which includes stints at Hindalco, Corporate HR, Minacs Philippines, BITS Pilani, Madura Garments, Pantaloons, Birla Carbon US and Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail.
Managing Director - CEO & Founder, Tiivra Ventures
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Building brands without advertising is the imperative in India today. Whether FMCG or B2B, the media clutter necessitates smarter strategies to maximize the brand experience at all touch points. From the caller greeting in IVR systems to in-store experience, robust brands can gain share, build credibility and ultimately value. Strong brands are built on culture - and DY Works uses semiotics to map changing societies and consumers to effectively create brands that resonate.
Vice President, SAP SuccessFactors India
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A Seasoned Senior Management Sales and Business Leader with more than 25 years of Management & Sales leadership , Strategy & Business Development, Alliances & Channels experience in creating and growing sustainable new businesses in emerging markets in Asia Pacific with particular focus on India. Combines a rich blend of entrepreneurial flair and experience with the process driven execution focus of large global corporations to establish, build and sustain profitable businesses.
Active as an outstanding spokesperson and brand ambassador to establish thought leadership and market presence for leading brands.
Strengths lie in creating strategies and executing them for organisations to capitalise on core Enterprise IT platforms and the emerging trends of Mobility, Analytics and the Cloud to mitigate contemporary business challenges in Human Capital Management using Technology and IT frameworks, platforms & tools for process excellence, particularly enabling organisations in India and emerging markets of Asia to be more successful. Also very experienced with the Partner Ecosystem in Asia and in blending Direct & Indirect Sales Channels to maximum Sales leverage and success.
To make a difference with every pursuit, a positive change to business and society, with a passion to make start up initiatives successful, to build and create high performance teams
Specialties: Entry strategies for product lines or new businesses in Emerging markets. A business savvy general management & sales leader for incubating new concepts, building brands & in creating sustainable and profitable businesses in the high growth and exciting markets of Asia Pacific region.
Head of New Markets - APAC, MENA & South America, Insights
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Mark has over 8 years of experience working with people and teams around the world. He has delivered over 200 Insights Discovery workshops and worked with Executive and Senior Teams across many sectors including financial, tourism, retail, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and technology. He has delivered session across Africa Asia and the Pacific and has a particular interest in building teams and aligned strategy.
Mark has, over the past years, been engaging with clients across Asia through speaking at events, and facilitating at workshops and sharing sessions. Clients are impressed with his energy, innovative approaches, knowledge and, most importantly, his practical applications with the end result in mind.
Vice President & Head of Human Resources, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, India
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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.
VP & CHRO, Iris Software Inc
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Sharad Verma is currently VP & CHRO for Iris Software Inc. A graduate of XLRI, Jamshedpur, Sharad has more than 25 years of experience in HR in leadership roles with prestigious organizations like Polaris, SunGard, Monster and BNY Mellon. He has led the people function for many organisations through change and transformation supported by data, analytics and technology.
Mountaineer, Adventurer, Explorer & Motivator
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Deeya Bajaj has made adventure a mission in her life - achieving feats that dreams are made of. A modern-day explorer and adventurer, she is a living example of how to not just survive but enjoy challenges and pressures.
Having travelled the most tough terrains of the world, she talks about female empowerment and how to think, take decisions, lead and be a team player in times of adversity.
Director, HR, Mondelez India Foods Private Ltd
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R Mahalakshmi is Director- Human Resources at Mondelez India (Erstwhile Cadbury's) and is a member of their Asia Middle East & Africa HR Leadership Team and the India Country Leadership Team. She is responsible for leading the HR function for the approx. USD 1Bn India business of the world’s largest snacking company. The role involves defining & delivering the HR strategy to unlock the true growth potential of our business and people. Over the last three years she has been been at the heart of enabling the India Business Turnaround for Mondelez : recrafting the talent strategy, impacting talent brand, jump-shifting engagement and retention, building a growth and innovation mindset and putting Mdlz India – back on being the growth engine for Mdlz Globally; as well as among the top two in the industry on topline bottomline combined .
Mahalakshmi has over 22 years of experience across business consulting, HR consulting and HR Leadership roles across FMCG, Telecom, Paper, Pharma and consulting. She brings with her deep functional expertise in the area of large scale transformation, multi geography M&A & integration, Organisation Design, Talent Strategy and Rewards. She has led a number of business transformation initiatives, handled roles spanning over 20 countries & has worked with talent from over 50 nationalities in her various roles.
Mahalakshmi holds an MBA and a degree Physics (Hons). A certified life coach, Maha is active on twitter (@mahasworld) and loves to write – with her last articles published for Mint, Economic Times Business Today & People Matters.
Chairman & MD, Gamma Pizzakraft India & Gamma Pizzakraft Lanka Pvt Ltd
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Amar Raj Singh is the Chairman and Managing Director of Gamma Pizzakraft Pvt Ltd and Gamma Lanka Pvt Ltd, franchisees of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Delifrance, owning 75 outlets in NCR Delhi, Srilanka and Maldives . This entrepreneurial venture was commenced in 2005. He is also a consultant in the food and beverage industry and a director on the board of Sapphire Foods India Pvt Ltd a franchisee of Pizza Hut and KFC pan India.
He did his schooling from Delhi Public School and finished his graduation from Sri Ram College of Commerce. He then went on to become a Chartered Accountant. He did his Senior Executive Programme from London Business School and a specialized course in Strategy and Organisation from Stanford Business School.
Amar started his career as a practicing chartered accountant. He then moved to Nepal for 14 years and rose to become the CEO of Soaltee Group, one of the largest and most prestigious business houses in the country, having international joint ventures and interests in Hospitality, Tobacco, Tea, Transportation etc. He then returned to India in 1996 and took over as Vice President with Coca Cola India and was responsible for the setting up of new plants and corporate affairs for India. After 5 years with Coke he moved on to become the Managing Director for India and South Asia, for Diageo, the world’s largest liquor company owning brands like Johnnie Walker, Guinness and Smirnoff. He has worked extensively with CII and other business chambers in India and Nepal.
Amar is a keen golfer and sportsman. He is widely traveled. He was the Captain of the Royal Nepal Golf Club. He is a guest lecturer at Management Institutes on Culture & Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility. He has written several articles and features. He is a poet, actor and singer. He is the former President of The Aravali Center for Art & Culture and a trustee of The Akshar Foundation which works in the field of dyslexia education .
He was decorated twice by His Majesty the King of Nepal for his services in the SAARC region.
Founder & Managing Director, Potential Project
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Rasmus is a deep thinker. He believes in the vast potential of the human mind, and strives to help organizations become more mindful, resilient and happy. Rasmus is a world-leading expert on the mental side of leadership.
Rasmus Hougaard is the Founder and Managing Director of Potential Project, a global leadership training, organizational development and research firm, helping leaders and organizations enhance performance, innovation and resilience.
His radical views on the key qualities of the leaders of the future, got him recognized by the Thinkers50 as one of the most important emerging business thinkers and leaders in the world. He has partnered with leading organizations like Harvard Business Review and Accenture, to launch Mind Assessment tools and other humane interventions.
He is the author of “One Second Ahead” as well as “The Mind of the Leader”, a bestseller published by Harvard Business Review. In addition, he writes for Harvard Business Review and Forbes and lectures at the world’s leading business and executive education schools like IMD, Rotman and IESE.
Rasmus is often described as an authentic and kind person. He has led more than 1,500 keynotes and workshops and is recognized as the leading global authority on training the mind to be focused, effective and clear for great leadership, performance, innovation and resilience.
Rasmus’ most recent book “The Mind of the Leader – How to Lead Yourself, Your People and Organization for Extraordinary Results”, published by Harvard Business Review is based on research on 35,000 leaders and executives and provides a pathway to great leadership in the 21st century. It is one of the fastest selling books from HBR in years.
His first book “One Second Ahead – Enhancing Your Performance at Work with Mindfulness” is a performance bible in organizations like Accenture, LEGO and many more. Rasmus has a background in organizational development and research as well as a leadership career in Sony Corporation. He lives in Copenhagen and New York with his wife and three teenagers.
Executive Director - Knowledge & Advisory Services
SHRM India, APAC & MENA
At SHRM India, Nishith leads a growing advisory practice focussed on enabling clients realize business goals though better alignment of people practices. He is focused on achieving business growth through effective execution of client consulting mandates for the whole practice in domains such as Vision & Values cascade, Organization Structuring, Performance Management System & other HR process design. In his stint in a corporate role, Nishith has worked with the Bharti group- as a part of the Organization Design and Talent Management team. Here – he worked on projects such as shared service design and implementation, manpower planning, and organization structure design and evaluation. Prior to working with SHRM, Nishith was with the HR consulting teams of PwC, ECS, and Aon Hewitt. Nishith holds a Master’s Degree in Human Resources and Organizational Development (MHROD), presently MBA-HRD, from Dept. of Commerce, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi and is a certified practitioner of BIOSS tools and methodologies for organization design and leadership capability assessment.
Independent Director & Former CEO JLL, India
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With over 40 years of experience, Gagan is currently the “Chief Evangelist – Culture” at Anarock Property Consultants Pvt. Ltd. She leads the Ethics, Diversity and CSR programs at the Company and also oversees the Legal function.
She is an Independent Director on the boards of Timex Group since 2007 and of Future Retail Ltd since 2016. She heads the Audit Committees of both Companies.
Gagan worked for 10 years at JLL India till March 2017 as CEO – Business. During her stint at JLL, amongst other things, Gagan oversaw the integration of Meghraj with JLL, led the Project and Development Services business, set up and led the Sri Lanka operations and started SEZ Shared Service office for the Asia Pacific region. She also launched and implemented the D&I, Ethics and CSR initiatives at the Company.
Prior to JLL, Gagan was with Benetton India for over 6 years as Executive Director and was appointed CEO in 2005. Gagan spent 14 years from 1982 to 1995 in Nepal with the Soaltee Group, the leading conglomerate of Nepal.
A Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant by qualification, she is a Trustee of Salaam Baalak Trust and is also the founding Vice President of Youthreach.
CHRO
Mphasis
Ayaskant currently heads the human resources function for Mphasis globally.
He brings with him more than two and half decades of human resources experience spanning multiple industries in areas like work force planning, talent acquisition, talent management, C&B, M&A, L&D and Analytics.
Prior to his current role, Ayaskant has worked with Wipro for 11 years including being the CHRO for Wipro Enterprises and before that has played multiple roles in Wipro Limited including leading the human resources function for service lines as well as providing leadership to many COEs globally such as leadership hiring, talent management and learning & development. Prior to Wipro, Ayaskant has worked with organizations like General Electric, Infosys Technologies and Larsen & Toubro. In General Electric, Ayaskant had more than a decade long stint with more than 8 years with GE Healthcare and 3 years with GE Corporate.
Ayaskant is a regular speaker in many other Industry forums and also mentors a couple of start- ups in Human Resources.
Ayaskant has done his engineering from NIT Surat and his master’s in human resources from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.
Director, Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH)
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Dr Harivansh Chaturvedi is Professor and Director at Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), Greater Noida, India and Alternate President of Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI). He has more than 45 years of experience in teaching, research and academic administration. He has been Director at All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), a statutory body under the Government of India. Being a renowned management educationist, he has been deeply involved with national bodies like AIMA, NHRDN, AIMS and the Indian Management Conclave (IMC), annually organized by the MBA Universe.com. Dr Chaturvedi is on the Board of Governors of several prominent universities and higher education institutions in India. Dr Chaturvedi is also the Member of Quality Management, Dr Bhimarao Ambedkar University, Agra.
Dr Chaturvedi is the Trustee and the Executive President of the Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI), a national network of universities and bschools of India. Dr Chaturvedi has authored and edited five books relating to various challenges before Indian Business, economy and Higher education, "Quality, Accreditation and Ranking - A Silent Revolution in the Offing in Indian Higher Education". His latest book (two volumes) edited with Dr Ajoy Kumar Dey is The New Normal - Challenges of Managing Business, Social and Ecological Systems in the Post Covid-19 Era.
CHRO
Orient Electric
Aditya is the Chief Human Resources officer at Orient Electric (CK Birla Group), and is responsible for building the culture and the human capital of an organization that is undergoing significant transformation. He is passionate about leading the people agenda that ensures that we get the right people, in the right roles, with the right capabilities to drive differentiated performance and make a significant impact in our Industry.
He has over two decades of experience that spans across multiple facets of HR including Performance, Reward and Benefits, Business Relationship Management, HR Transformation & Change Management, Employee Engagement, HR Technology & Service Delivery Strategy, Shared Services and Global Payroll Models. He is a results-driven leader, who has worked in Singapore, India and London, managing global teams in a highly matrixed global environment. In all of his roles, he has created space to drive change through a multi discipline approach that leverages all aspects of Human Capital Management, Technology and Culture to drive productivity and performance.
Prior to Orient he has worked across sectors in marquee organisations like Clix Capital, Airtel, Standard Chartered Bank and Hewitt Associates (Aon).
Managing Director, India Cornerstone
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Mr. Nishchae Suri is the Managing Director, India, at Cornerstone. Nishchae was earlier serving as the President, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa at EdCast, which got acquired by Cornerstone in May 2022.
Prior to EdCast, Nishchae was a Senior Partner with KPMG in India. With over 25 years of experience in consulting and academia, he has worked with a wide array of clients in 25 countries across Asia and the Middle East. Prior to joining KPMG, Nishchae was the Managing Director and CEO for Mercer India. He started his career with Hewitt Associates (Aon) where he held several leadership positions and achieved the feat of becoming the youngest ever Global Partner. Nishchae has led some of the largest organization transformation engagements working with Public Sector Enterprises, Indian & Foreign Multinationals and family-led businesses. His pioneering work and thought leadership in these areas through consulting, research, published writings and addressing conferences have been widely recognised by both the business fraternity and the media. In 2005, CNBC recognised him by conferring on him with the title –‘Young Turk’, an award for young achievers who were helping shape and transform businesses.
A teacher at heart, Nishchae frequently lectures at leading business schools across the country and is also a faculty member with WorldatWork (a global association for human resource management professionals and business leaders). His passion for education and pursuit of building the next generation of leaders led Nishchae to co-found the School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL). Nishchae has held several positions of responsibility with leading associations including NHRDN where he served on their Board in the capacity of their National Treasurer and as the President of Delhi and National Capital Region. To promote development of talent across the country, as the Chairman of the Young Minds Council, he conceptualised and launched the ‘Ram Charan’ Awards for Young HR Icons, a platform for recognising and celebrating bright HR talent from top business schools and corporates.
Nishchae holds an MBA in Finance from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, where he was awarded a gold medal and several scholarships for academic excellence.
Senior VP, HR & Head of Strategic Hiring, Edelweiss Group
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Babita is Senior Vice President, HR and Head of Strategic Hiring at Edelweiss Group. Babita is passionate about people and culture and how it manifest in digital age to define future of work and workplace. In her career of 18 years, she has led many change and transformation initiatives which had talent and experience at the core. Her work exposure in Financial services industry at domestic and global level on various people agenda enthuses her in translating business challenges into agile people strategy and execution. Her current quest is how to unlock value of human potential which drives social inclusion. She is also a leading voice on inclusion and diversity.
Director HR, Moil Limited
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Ms. Usha Singh is the first Director (HR) of MOIL LIMITED.
MOIL is the largest Manganese ore producer in the country with market share of around 50%. MOIL is a Schedule-A Mini Ratna Category-I PSU and has been making profits year-after-year from decades.
Prior to this, Ms. Singh was Executive Director (Personnel & Administration) heading Personnel, HRD, CSR, Administration and other related functions at NMDC. She was also heading the Business Development and Corporate Planning functions at NMDC.
Ms. Singh has also worked for 25 years in Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) which includes 8 years as a Technical Advisor to Chairman, SAIL.
She is an Engineering Graduate and an MBA, who has more than 30 years of professional experience.
Ms. Singh has been nominated among the Top 100 Global inspirational Women in Mining in 2020. She also has several awards to her credit, which includes, ‘SCOPE Outstanding Woman Manager’ and ‘Best Employee Award’ in SAIL. She has authored and presented several papers in national as well as international conferences.
Chief Learning Officer, D&I Leader, Hydrocarbon Business
Reliance Industries
Hemalakshmi Raju is a HR Leader driven by a strong passion to do transformative work with individuals and organizations. She holds multi-sector experience and is currently heading Learning & Development and Diversity & Inclusion functions for Reliance Industries Ltd. She is also a member of Harvard Business Publishing’s Asia Pacific Leadership Advisory Board – Corporate Learning.
Hema is known as a HR professional with a deep business focus and an ability to drive change. Learning & Leadership Development, Talent Management, Employee Experience, Culture Building and Diversity and Inclusion are areas of her interest and expertise.
She enjoys coaching and mentoring diverse set of professionals. She blogs on topics pertaining to Organizational Culture, Positive Living, Learning & Leadership Development. She also speaks at multiple HR forums.
Hema writes poetry in her free time, which she believes is not just a form of creative expression but is also a medium for influencing change.
Assistant Professor, IIIT Delhi, Consultant & Head, Clinical Psychologist, Artemis Hospital
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A Ph.D. in Psychology, from the university college of medical sciences, University of Delhi. Bachelors and Masters in Psychology from University of Delhi, with a 'Distinction Award'.
Currently working as an Assistant Professor at IIIT Delhi, Consultant & Head for Clinical Psychologist at Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon.
He is also a Member Editor and a part of the review panel of Delhi Psychiatry Journal (Hosted by Ministry of Communications and Information Technology).
In collaboration with Harvard University, USA, he has developed one of the 1st courses in Positive Psychology and leadership in India, based on the International Harvard Module and introduced it to the IIT and IIITs as main curriculam.
His in-depth knowledge, clear understanding and brilliant acumen of the field has helped him won awards and recognition in the field of Psychology. He was awarded a certificate of research contribution by The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), of the Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India. and has presented several original research papers in several national and international Psychology conferences including, Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), National Academy of Psychology (NAOP), Delhi University, Sambalpur University, Amity University, Jamia Milia Islamia University etc. His expertise in the field of Holistic Health has helped him refine himself further. He has been practicing Reiki personally and professionally for 09 years. He has done a specialized course on Mindfulness meditation for stress and Anxiety reduction from Tushita Meditation Retreat by Glen Svensson, from Australia with teachers such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
He has done specialized courses in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Clinical Hypnotherapy having learnt Clinical hypnosis from Vimhans Hospital, Delhi and California Hypnosis Association (Accredited by American Hypnosis Association) at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
He is a senior consultant and trainer with more than 8 years of corporate experience at Ask Insights, a Gender Diversity Consulting and Training company. He has conducted several workshops at IBM, Walmart, Concentrix, Evalueserve, Unicon, Unison, PepsiCo, Vodafone, Airtel, E&Y, Vedanta and Cain India.
CEO, Higher Ed business - Veranda Learning Solutions Ltd
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Aditya Malik, is a successful tech-entrepreneur and CEO of Higher Ed business of Veranda Learning Solutions Ltd, one of the leading new age, technology driven interactive education companies.
Prior to Joining Veranda he was the founder of Ed tech company Talentedge and was also working as a Senior Partner at Lumis Partners (a private Equity fund). He has also worked as Senior Vice President & Head - Migrations and Quality and SVP & Head HR at Bank of America. His past experience includes stints as a AVP, GE Consumer Finance SBI cards and VP Operations at GECIS.
Aditya is a dynamic thought leader with over twenty eight years of professional experience and proven leadership and track record in the areas of new business set up, revenue expansion, sales, risk management and global cross boundary operations. He is a driven and motivated professional adept at multi-tasking as well as managing and leading even under stressful or uncertain conditions.
Aditya is a certified Master Black Belt and also holds a Masters in Business Administration from Pune University.
Global Head - Organisation Development & Effectiveness, L&T Technology Services
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Sonal comes with an academic background in Organisation Development and a rich 22 years of diverse work experience that spans across industries & countries . What she sees as the common denominator, is the role people play in any successful enterprise and her belief in the endless potential of people which makes her passionate about Organisation Development. She is a visionary and has taken a lead to setup OD function in organizations. She is a Coach & has vast experience in Learning & Leadership development, Culture Transformations , Development centers, Competency Mapping, Career progression frameworks and Creating Disruption in Learning for Modern Day Learners, for building organizational agility.
In L&T Technology Service, Sonal’s role is to Lead leadership and people capability across levels to support organizational effectiveness and business rigor. Her key role is to build the talent capital in alignment with the organization’s strategic intent. She heads two functions : Organisation Development which works along with the CEO & CXO’s to build a Leadership pipeline, Succession Planning and Culture and Organisation Effectiveness, which is responsible for strategizing Learning & Development needs for the organization to ensure capability building & organisation Effectiveness. She also heads the Diversity & Inclusion Portfolio for the organisation .
Vice President HR, ABB
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Sheena S Minhas is Vice President HR, ABB currently leading globally teams of HR Business Partner and Learning & Talent for their Global Business Services. She brings with her very diverse international experience of nearly two decades. She leads globally a highly-talented team of experienced professionals who partner with leaders to achieve greater people development engagement and retention resulting in high impact business results
Started her career in Indian Air force and served as a Flight Lieutenant, in Fighter Controlling branch. Primarily posted to bases at the Indian borders, she participated in action packed fighter sorties and also got the opportunity to be lead a unit stationed on the borders in troubled times, where her performance earned her commendation. During her last assignment as AF Base Adjutant she started to recognize a passion for human resources work, and she now describes herself as an Air Force officer turned HR professional.
Having led different roles in HR function including Generalist, IR and CoE’s for Talent, OD & Learning, Comp & Ben, she has been also instrumental in piloting the Lean principles in OD function, Leadership Development, Change Management and worked thru development interventions for building a robust talent development & succession plan. Along with interventions for employer branding, onboarding and Middle Managers effectiveness program to enhance engagement and retention.
International Partner, Potential Project
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Rob is responsible for our global Sales and Client Solutions teams. Prior to joining Potential Project, Rob was a Managing Director with Accenture working in the Technology sector for over 20 years with deep experience in leading complex transformation programs across industries. Having personally experienced the benefits of mind training, Rob became the global sponsor for mindfulness within Accenture, the largest global mind training program at that time.
Executive Director, Natural Gas Society
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Presently working as Executive Director in GAIL (India) Ltd. (a Maharatna PSU) and Director on the Board of M/s GAIL Gas Ltd., Mr. Shastry heads GAIL’s three verticals – Training, R&D and Start Up.
He has also worked as Director (Personnel) in Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), a PSU under Department of Atomic Energy.
Mr. Shastry is M.Tech (Energy Systems Engg) from IIT,Bombay with PG Diploma in Management (DIM) & Advanced Certificate in HRM (ACHRM). Prior to dedicating to HR/HRD domain, he has had experience in the domains of Project Management and Operations & Management of Natural Gas Pipelines and Gas Processing Plants.
Apart from performing the key roles in various areas of HR and HRD, his major contribution has been in bringing transformational changes, particularly in the areas of Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, Training & Leadership Development, Mentoring, Employee Engagement & OD and establishing a strong Industry-Academia Interface.
It is under his leadership that GAIL’s Corporate Training Institute (GTI) has been transformed as a World Class Centre of Excellence in Natural Gas sector.
He is the recipient of many national and international awards like “DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR AWARD” by ISOL Global Foundation at Chicago, (USA), ISTD “EMERGING HRD THINKER AWARD", “Asia-Pacific Leadership Award”, etc.
He is actively involved with and is holding important positions in various professional bodies/institutions like Member, Board of Studies (BoS) - AIMA, Member, GC & BoS - Institute of Public Enterprise (IPE), Member, General Body (GB) – FORE Society, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT), etc.
He is a member of national & international professional bodies like SHRM, NHRDN, NIPM, ISTD, ASME, etc. He is also a Member of Jury for the prestigious FICCI Higher Education Excellence Awards.
Mr Shastry has a deep interest in spirituality, ancient Indian literature/scriptures, music and yoga, etc. He is also an erudite writer having several publications to his credit.
He has widely travelled across the globe in pursuit of his professional activities.
HR Head, Global Generics, Dr. Reddy’s Labs
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Swatee has driven several organizational change initiates with focus on skill building, leadership development, creating a learning culture and enabling the digital transformation agenda. She has over two decades of rich experience encompassing teaching, research, training, consulting and leading people development practices. She has driven several strategic interventions for business advantage and has extensively worked in areas of talent modelling, learning, leadership, change and work practice innovations.
Swatee is an accomplished HR thought leader with a Ph.D. in the area of Talent Management and Organizational Development
VP HR, Reliance Jio
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Experienced Business Human Resources Leader with a strong penchant for Talent scouting and demonstrated history of working in start-up and high growth businesses. Business Acumen, High Empathy for diverse stake holder groups, Penchant for futuristic Tech models and Passion to building high performing Business & HR teams are my key strengths. I am passionate about the possible impact industry-academia interface has on the quality of education & work and committed to do my bit to innovate in this space
Head - HR, India, Fidelity International
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Upasna has 22 years of rich HR experience across leading organizations like Fidelity, Sapient, and Evalueserve, where she has held a variety of leadership positions. She is currently the Head of HR in India for Fidelity International.
She has worked deeply on strengthening the linkage between business and HR strategy in ever-evolving multidimensional work ecosystems. At present, she has been focusing extensively on creating human-centric people strategies that align with - the future of work, generational shifts within society and workplaces, and evolving imperatives for leadership development. She is passionate about the topic of D&I and has worked widely on building cultures that not only value DEI but actively nurture it.
She is a certified coach from International Coach Federation.
She strongly believes in the value of continuous learning and working with diverse teams to evolve perspectives in the fast-changing volatile world.
SVP HR- Leadership Development & Talent Management, GSCs & Tech, HSBC
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Abraham Zachariah has over 2 decades of leadership development experience in large multinational organisations. He has worked in Sales and Marketing for the first part of his career majorly handling Light Commercial Vehicles , pre-dominantly in rural India. From managing large scale back office operations to moving into L&TD, Abraham has had a rich diverse global corporate experience. Over the last decade and half, he has pioneered many changes in Leadership Development , Diversity and Inclusion, Cultural integration and Change management. He has been a very highly sort after speaker for conferences.
Sr. Director Operations, SHRM APAC & MENA
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Archana Jerath has been with SHRM for 6 years and is Business Leader, Operations for SHRM India and APAC. She is responsible for Conferences and Events (India, MENA, APAC) ; SHRM Certification and Membership growth in India and APAC, B2C Sales and driving various initiatives in the region. She has Twenty Three years of experience of which she spent the last Thirteen years in the HR Industry. In the past Archana has worked with TV-18 (BBC World, CNN, Star etc.), GE Capital International Services, Kelly Services and IKYA Human Capital Solutions in various roles prior to joining SHRM. Archana is result oriented and has successfully led large teams across various verticals and has an expertise in Business and project management. She is Six-Sigma Green Belt Certified from GE and has led quality projects in Lean Six-Sigma, ISO implementation and Internal Systems and procedures from the ground-up.
President, upGrad for Business
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Minaxi is a customer centric business leader with almost two decades of experience across customer excellence and business growth. She is a strategic thinker and believes in aligning with customer's objectives to drive mutual wins.Minaxi is motivated by scaling businesses that positively impact customers and believes in empowering teams to deliver successful outcomes.
She has worked with market leaders like IBM, Cisco, SAP and LinkedIn and Uber successfully partnering with customer's on mutual priorities. Currently , she is the President- UpGrad for Business, leading the corporate market for upGrad .
Chief People Officer, Sapphire Foods Pvt. Ltd.
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Sandhydeep is a cultural transformation specialist with over 23 years of experience. Having worked across industries like Manufacturing, Media & Entertainment, Consulting, Information Technology and Retail, she has been able to successfully transform ways of working across organizations. She has handled all strategic HR functions, delivering Business Results and facilitating Financial Performance.
She has worked extensively across geographies, including Asia Pacific, Europe and North America.
Before joining Sapphire Foods, Sandhydeep worked for Aditya Birla Group, handling the Organization Excellence portfolio for ABRL and ABFRL. She has worked with Deloitte, Mahindra Satyam, Mudra Communications, Visteon, and Denso India during last 23 years.
At Sapphire Foods, she has led the people & culture transformation agenda, ensuring right people in right roles with desired cultural mindset. She has been able to weave a strategic partnership with Business by establishing a robust structure for HR excellence, creating platforms for a listening organization, and building a performance driven talent & rewards framework. She has successfully moulded a One Sapphire culture based on organization values, focussed at achieving the organization’s aspiration. She was pivotal in helping the organization navigate the troubled waters of the pandemic-struck industry, handling the situation with utmost empathy and foresight
Chief Revenue Officer, SumTotal
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Liam Butler is Chief Revenue Officer for SumTotal. He has approaching 20 years’ experience in the Learning and Talent Management sector. Liam has an in-depth knowledge of Extended Enterprise Models, experience in pharmaceutical GxP regulated businesses, and detailed domain expertise in core verticals such as manufacturing and aviation. He is a regular speaker at industry events and contributes written articles to a variety of publications.
Director - Talent Practice, Indian Sub Continent & Equality & Inclusion Leader - Asia, Middle East & Africa, Procter & Gamble
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Head - Customer Success, APAC, Coursera
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Krishnan Unni, (fondly called Unni) has close to 25 years of experience in the information technology industry. Unni heads the Customer Success portfolio at Coursera for the Asia Pacific.
Before Coursera, Unni has worked with Udemy, Pluralsight, Microsoft, Dell, Aricent, and TCS in various capacity leading sales, pre-sales, and customer success functions. Outside of work, Unni spends time reading, gardening, and mentoring. Unni holds a Master's Degree in Economics. He is based out of Bangalore.
Senior Director - South & Advisory Services
SHRM India & APAC
A passionate and multi-tasking business professional with over a decade of experience, Dedeepya handles the portfolios including Advisory, Research and Academic Partnerships catering to the regions of India, as well as APAC regions. She further also heads the South Region for SHRM India and is responsible for business development and consulting in the area of Human Capital Management. Prior to this, she has worked with Oracle India as HR Consultant. Her areas of interest include Knowledge Management, Diversity and Inclusion, Competency Assessment and Development, Organization Development, Research and HR Analytics. She has been involved in the project design, content generation and implementation of consultancy projects in the above areas. She is experienced in using Quantitative and Qualitative research methods for diagnostic purposes including identifying relevant variables, designing questionnaires and using various statistical methods for analysis. She co-authored papers/ book chapters in the areas of Diversity and Inclusion and further has contributed extensively to various articles / interviews in leading newspapers. Dedeepya is a Mechanical Engineer from Jawaharlal Technological University (Kakinada, A.P) followed by a MBA from Indian Institute of Science (IISc, Bangalore, India). She is a certified SHRM Senior Certified Professional ( SHRM SCP), Level -1 Hogan Assessor and is certified in Job Evaluation by KornFerry - Hay. Along with her work, Dedeepya is passionate about painting, dancing and sports.
Head, Novartis Learning Institute, India
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Sriram Rajan is a passionate Talent & OD Leader. With 20 years of experience across industries and geographies, he has lead teams in organizations like Deloitte Consulting, Deutsche Bank & HP. In his current role with Novartis, he heads the Novartis Learning Institute for India.
From managing scales for organizations with an employee base of 35,000 people, to impacting critical business metrics around people engagement, Sriram has a wealth of experience across all critical functions of the HR/ Human Capital Engine.
A Performance & Leadership Coach, Sriram was felicitated as the MEA HR Professional of the Year in Nov 2017.His work around C-Suite leadership and culture development won the Top award across the MEA region in 2017. A Key Note speaker at regional and global forums, some of his other recognitions include work he’s done around digitizing & establishing innovative people development practices.
An avid traveler and photographer, Sriram studied in Delhi. He then spent a significant amount of time in Bangalore before moving to Dubai where he spent 7 years. He is currently based out of Hyderabad
CHRO
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company
Vikramjeet Singh is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company. A work experience of about two decade and an eventful and rich association with large firms like L&T, Vodafone and Deutsche Bank have carved his expertise in HR and strategic business operations.
Combining an impeccable academic and professional record, Vikram has handled all areas in HR, with special interest in Organisation Transformation, Talent Management, OD interventions, Strategic HR, Employer Branding and Leadership Capability Development.
In addition, Vikram is widely recognised as a transformational and accomplished thought leader who firmly believes in people journey transformation aided through technology and guided by impactful human touch.
VIkram has catalysed various cultural transformation, which should serve as a case study in change leadership, succession, organizational design, talent acquisition, and learning & development. With a diverse background in human resources, his business and leadership acumen are only exceeded by his commitment to make others better.
He has immensely contributed to the people agenda which were acknowledged through multiple coveted awards in Indian Sub-Continent, APAC level and Globally.
Global Solution Design Consultant, Insights
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Tanya brings over 20 years of consulting and teaching experience to her role at Insights. She has a PH.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and has worked as an internal and external consultant as well as a university instructor. Tanya has co-authored several articles on learning from experience, and contributed to a book on leadership published by the Center for Creative Leadership.
Tanya’s style blends teaching with coaching. When facilitating, she fosters an interactive and participative learning environment designed to meet a range of learning styles. She is creative, adaptive, and meets individuals and teams where they are in their development. Tanya also brings an understanding of and appreciation for research, leading her to seek out evidence-based tools for use with clients.
VP, HR Head - India, Fiserv Global Services
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Mamta heads the HR function for Fiserv India and operates as a trusted advisor to the senior leadership team for Fiserv Global Services across India, US and Costa Rica on all talent related dimensions, with enhanced focus striking the perfect balance between the hearts and minds, while building a strong employer brand in the country.
Mamta is a committed People, Talent and HR leader with globally diversified experiences in multiple markets and technology organizations. She has an illustrious record of driving transformation to build organizational depth, culture and capability. She is well recognized to be a thought partner to business leaders in helping shape longer term HR strategy that supports the business strategy.
Mamta builds effective connections with stakeholders, both within and outside the organization, through her strong commercial acumen focused on creating a compelling competitive advantage for the brand. She has developed expertise as a HR generalist coaching executives, Talent Management, Analytics, Succession Planning, Leadership Development, HR Delivery, Equality at Workplace and building and driving a high-performance culture.
She constantly challenges herself and the team to raise their thinking. She always steps up and takes charge in a crisis to manage it with dignity, integrity and transparency. She thrives in opportunities for managing complex assignments, executive leadership assimilation, intrapreneurship, business turnarounds and environments of change. She demonstrates passion, energy, creativity, cultural sensitivity, execution with speed and agility with highly effective consultative client partnership and relationship management skills.
At Fiserv, she is a big sponsor for D&I charter and plays an active leadership role internally in influencing progressive policies, pay equity and guiding Employee Resource Groups like Women’s Impact Network , UNITY and several others to enable them to unleash their potential and externally to bring more women into our workforce through different initiatives, as an e.g. Women in Tech returning to work after a career break.
Prior to this she has worked with IBM for over 13 years in varied global roles across geographies.
She earned a Bachelor of Commerce from Mount Carmel College in Bangalore, and a Masters in Human Resources Management from the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI). She loves to travel across the globe, do candid photography and interact with people from diverse backgrounds. Apart from listening to music, she is also an avid reader on multitude of topics.
Senior Vice President, Mastercard
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Priti is the Senior Vice President Human Resources, South Asia, Mastercard. A seasoned HR leader, she has led business transformations and enabled service, growth and efficiency solutions across different industries. She has been recognized for driving high performance, HR Strategies for organization effectiveness in rapidly evolving global business.
She has successfully driven organization design, talent solutions, built capabilities and brought together world class leadership teams including the culture change agenda spanning across Asia and North America.
At Mastercard South Asia, she leads People & Capability function spanning across International Markets, Technology, Cyber Intelligence, Data & Services business units across locations.
Priti is passionate about philanthropy, technology and diversity & inclusion. She enjoys working in a highly competitive matrix environment where collaboration and teamwork are critical keys to success.
Head - Academy for Management & Leadership Excellence
TVS Motor Company
Anil Santhapuri is a values-based and results-oriented Talent professional, with 21 years of professional experience in the areas of talent management, learning & leadership development. His career span includes working with organizations like FIS, Western Union, HCL Technologies, CGI, Mahindra Satyam and iGate Global Solutions.
Director - Knowledge and Advisory & Business Head - PSE Business
SHRM India
Ashissh has over 21 years of experience in HR Consulting firms and has been providing strategic HR inputs to more than 300 clients across industries and geographies, including India, the Middle East, the Americas, and Southeast Asia.
Ashissh is a certified DDI Master Facilitator, Gallup Strengths Coach, Hogan Certified, Talent Management, and HR Technology, expert. Before joining SHRM, Ashissh worked extensively with world-class Consulting organizations like Gallup, Mercer, DDI, and Aon.
He is a trusted adviser to C suite leaders on improving business results by helping build leadership capability, people digital systems, craft talent management strategy, training and designing development journeys, and measuring employee engagement.
Ashissh is known for his executive presence, public speaking skills, and passion for facilitating leadership and behavioral training workshops. His other significant work includes evaluating and building organizational structures by linking to business needs and the application of competencies across the organization. He is also a certified Competency Based Interviewer. Ashissh is an engineering graduate and an alumnus of IIM Lucknow.
Talent Strategy Advisor, Employer Branding Specialist Product Evangelist
Indeed,India
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.
MD - Employee Relations, Policies & Statutory Compliances, Accenture India
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Seema Ajwaniis a Managing Director with Accenture in India and leads Employee Relations, Policies and Statutory Compliance function. She provides strategic direction to Human Resources (HR) compliance and employee relations agenda for India. In addition, she offers her leadership and expertise in crucial areas such as Conduct Counts, POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) and Mental Wellness.
Seema brings with her more than 25 years of experience as a strategic HR business partner across multiple areas for various technology organizations. Prior to joining Accenture, she was with IBM India for over a decade, working on employee experience and retention.
She is passionate about developing women leaders, and throughout her career has helped advance gender diversity and inclusion in technology. She has also received the Women in Leadership (WILL) forum award for her contribution towards developing women leaders.
Seema holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Delhi university and has completed a certificate course in personal management and industrial relations from SP college of Communications.
Head, HR Laws (Employment & Labor), Nishith Desai Associates
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Vikram Shroff is the leader of the HR Law team at the research & strategy driven international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates with offices in Mumbai, Silicon Valley, Bangalore, Singapore, New Delhi, Munich and New York.
Vikram is rated by most international journals as one of India's leading labour & employment lawyers. He advises leading technology, media and financial services sector companies in drafting and negotiating employment contracts; non- disclosure agreements and assignment of intellectual property; competition and solicitation restrictions; structuring of expatriate and secondment arrangements; HR policies and employee handbooks; compensation structuring; employee stock option and share purchase plans; employee transfer and post-merger integration; employment termination, lay off & redundancy; employment litigation; and employment related immigration laws.
His expertise is often sought after for urgent and sensitive HR matters. He also helps clients in employee fraud and anti-bribery policies and investigations. He regularly conducts training for employees, managers and committee members.
CERTAIN RECOGNITIONS
Who's Who Legal has recognized Vikram as a Though Leader for Labour & Employment for 2017-2019. Chambers & Partners has rated him as a Band 1 Employment Lawyer from 2014-2019 He has been the exclusively recommended lawyer in India by Employment Law Experts. Vikram is considered a 'Subject Matter Expert' for Industrial Relations by Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) India.
President, Institutions & Enterprise Sales, Harappa Education
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Nilanjan Kar is the President of Institutions & Enterprise Sales at Harappa Education—a learner-centred institution of the future that is committed to delivering programs that drive transformative career success. He has over 23 years of experience as an enterprise leader with a reputation for delivering consistent business outcomes and building high performing teams. Previously, Nilanjan has served as President, Enterprise Business at UpGrad and Vice President at StackRoute, an NIIT initiative.
Head, Performance & Rewards, Bennett Coleman & Co. & SHRM Influencer
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Girish Kohli leads the Performance and Rewards practice at Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. He has been recognized as one of the Young HR Leaders as part of People Matters & DDI's "Are You in The List" in 2013 and recently as HR 40 Under 40 by Jombay.
Girish comes with 15 years of experience a large part of which were with Mercer Consulting in their Human Capital Consulting practice. Blending his consulting experience with the Corporate side of life he has had stints with a European Pharma Company, a Technology Startup and in his current role in the Media Industry getting the opportunity to apply himself to areas such as HR Strategy, Organization Development, Talent Management, Performance and Rewards, as well as Recruitment and Learning and Development.
With a penchant for both numbers and the abstract, he loves donning multiple hats and has considerable experience with both Organization Development Initiatives and Compensation and Benefits roles with data driven decision making at their core. Girish believes the business of talent is to drive the convergence between individual and organization growth aspirations.
Girish is an MBA from NMIMS, Mumbai and a B.E Computer Science from the Army Institute of Technology, University of Pune. A habitual story teller, Girish writes both fiction as well as articles in the HR domain. He is currently dabbling in gardening on his rooftop and getting back in shape for running the Marathon.
Manager - HR, Netflix & SHRM Influencer
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A seasoned professional, Atma has worked across a myriad of sectors and scaled up startups to 10x in terms of people capability, talent pipeline, and succession planning. Atma has been identified as an official SHRM influencer in 2020, a dynamic HR leader by Economic Times HR in 2021 and as 40 under 40 HR leaders by Jomaby. He volunteers with NITI Aayog in the Mentor India initiative.
An expert in business partnering, digital transformation, leadership hiring, and talent management, Atma has been responsible for major change initiatives in his stints with various organizations. His focus is on aligning people strategy, business strategy and organization culture, values and purpose.
He is an alumnus of PEC Chandigarh and TISS Mumbai.
VP Enterprise Solutions, EdCast
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Role of cognitive tech in enhancing people experience & organization efficiency has gained paramount importance in recent times. AI, ML, robotics & mobility is changing the way organizations identify, attract, engage, nurture & promote talent.
Karthik’s assignments involve partnering with Sr. leaders across business, HR and IT to assist them in this very transformation. Karthik has had experience working with leading conglomerates across Asia and Australia like Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group, Genpact, Stanchart Bank and Jardine Matheson in his career spanning two decades.
Karthik leads expansion and growth for EdCast Asia, a category defining leader in the talent experience space. EdCast. Karthik has worked previously with Skillsoft, Spire Technologies and 24x7 Learning where he held similar roles.
Executive Director HR & Head, ONGC Academy
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Head L&D, Birlasoft
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Deepak Arora heads global Learning & Development at Birlasoft. He brings with him 24 year of rich experience in Learning and Development across multiple IT organizations such as DXC Technology, Genpact, Capgemini & NIIT.
Within L&D Deepak has served many roles as a leader and has been instrumental in structuring & optimizing of organization wide Learning & Development strategy. Having been through multiple mergers and divestures, he has led in rearchitecting learning ecosystems in organizations with the right mix of technology, Learning Management Systems, Learning Experience Platforms & tools. Deepak’s Experience also includes leading the collaboration with the business leadership in driving the competency development strategy through various reskilling and upskilling initiatives to drive business outcomes.
Chief Talent Officer
Tata Digital
As the Chief Talent Officer at Tata Digital, Ina leads the entire talent value chain of the company, with the talent strategy aligned to the company’s strategic priorities. She has been with the Tata Group for 11 years and has held multiple leadership positions across Tata Communications and Tata 1mg.
She has over two decades of intra-disciplinary experience in human resources and has worked across sectors such as Technology, Banking and Consulting. Prior to the Tata Group, Ina has worked with BCG, HSBC and Essar Group, holding various leadership positions in HR, including global roles, with specialised experience in areas of People Strategy & Culture, Talent Management, Learning, Leadership & Organisation Development, Diversity & Inclusion, Driving large-scale transformations/change and Strategic Resourcing.
She is a student of human-centric leadership, and endeavours in increasing her quotient of adaptability, resilience and empathy in her leadership. She excels at partnering with CXOs and business leaders to build & execute their people strategy to solve complex people problems that impact business outcomes. She remains fascinated by the evolution of the people function in its contributions to creating value for the top and bottom-line growth for the company. In 2022, she brought home 3 Brandon Hall Awards (Academy awards equivalent for HR function) for creating change programs that impacted business outcomes.
Ina completed her Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resources from K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai and also holds a degree in Economics and English Literature from Panjab University.
HR - Director (GBS & India), BT
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Deepayan is currently the HR Director for Global Business Services (GBS) and India for BT. He leads the people function across GBS locations in the UK, Hungary and India, and also across BT in India.
He is a strategic HR professional with a keen focus on business success, and a proven ability and interest to align human and business performance. He brings in diverse experience from across industry sectors and people processes. He has worked with best-in-class organizations spanning manufacturing, oil & gas, technology, digital and professional services, financial services and telecom sectors, across various aspects of the people function – Strategic HR and Business Partnering, Total Reward, People Process Reengineering and Talent Management.
He has a proven track record of working as a truly global HR professional, having lived and worked in India and abroad, with the ability to deal with complexity and scale spanning geographies, cultures and time zones. He is a trusted advisor and a change agent with a solution mindset and loves working with diverse and virtual teams and working with senior stakeholders effectively, thereby generating impact.
Prior to joining BT, Deepayan worked as the HR Director for Marsh & McLennan/ Jardine Lloyd Thomspon, as Director - HR for India, Middle East and Africa. Earlier, he worked for 12 years with Accenture in various roles in India and the UK, 4 years with BP/ Castrol, and 3 years with Vardhman – one of the largest textile manufacturing companies in India.
Deepayan obtained his Master's Degree in Human Resource Management from SIBM Pune, and Innovation & Change Leadership Certification from ISB Hyderabad.
His interests in and around work include business models and their implications, disruption and its impacts, workforces and skills of the future, and leadership and human behaviour.
Outside of work, he loves tennis, travel, motorcycles, cycling and photography. When he is not outdoors, he loves to read nonfiction and watch documentaries.
Lead Marketing - SHRM India, APAC & MENA
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Shruti Sud has been with SHRM for 4 years and is Lead Marketing for SHRM India, APAC & MENA. At SHRM, she is responsible for conceptualizing and implementing the global & geo-specific brand and market strategy as well as shaping a more member/customer-centric experience; and also leads the marketing strategy and execution across digital, events, marketing communications, demand generation, product marketing. With over 13 years of experience in the Marketing/ Digital Media space, she is passionate about digital innovation and transformation, done via cultivating a strategic approach to digital disruption and organizational culture.
Chief Executive Officer
Abhijit Bhaduri LLC
Abhijit was described by the San Francisco Examiner as the "foremost expert on talent and development” and among the “ten most sought-after brand evangelists”. Forbes describes him as "the most interesting generalist from India" He teaches at the Penn CLO Executive Doctoral Program and led L&D globally for Microsoft. Abhijit was the first Chief Learning Officer for Wipro. He has led global teams at Colgate-Palmolive, PepsiCo, and Tata Steel. He is the author of bestsellers like "Don't Hire the Best" and "Career 3.0," and has been published by Harvard Business Review, HBR Ascend, Forbes, Business Line, Times of India and Economic Times. SHRM voted him as the No 1 HR Influencer on social media.
Principal, Flyntrok Consulting & SHRM Influencer
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Kavi is a talent and organisational change specialist who loves to play at the intersection of people, technology and organisational change.
With over two decades of corporate experience in multi-cultural environments, both in MNCs and Indian organisations, Kavi works with a wide network of practitioners around the world.
Kavi is an executive coach & Organisational change consultant. He works with senior leaders and select organisations across sectors, communities and geographies. To this end he uses a myriad weave of tools such as Design Thinking, Process Facilitation, Lego Serious Play, Appreciative Inquiry and such else.
Kavi works as a Principal at Flyntrok Consulting and also as the Director of Learning & Change at Founding Fuel. His newsletter, "The OWL Despatch" helps him pursue his interests in Social sciences, change and OD.
Director-HR & CHRO, Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd (The Times Group)
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A seasoned HR professional, Amit Das, has over 30 years of experience of working in Senior Leadership roles at various professionally managed large MNCs & reputed Indian organizations across diverse business sectors, namely, Tata Motors, CESC Ltd, ITW Signode, Britannia Industries Ltd, Taj Group of Hotels, Vodafone, RPG Group, and Reliance Group. He has effectively built and led extensive HR teams, managing the overall responsibility of the HR function in the context of integration of HR with business strategies to facilitate simultaneous growth of Human and Business capital, globally. Amit’s significant part of the experience has been in organization transformation, growth strategy and globalization of initiatives.
An alumni of the Kellogg’s School of Management, Amit currently holds the position of Director-HR & CHRO, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (Times Group). He is responsible of overall Human Capital Management of the Times Group business entities, which is India’s most diversified & profitable media conglomerate with power brands across print & publishing, television, internet, radio and outdoor domains. The flagship brand, The Times of India, is the world’s largest circulating English Daily and The Economic Times, is the world’s second largest circulating English Business Daily.
A regular speaker at reputed HR Forums, Colleges and Management Institutes, Amit, an avid reader and fitness enthusiast, strongly believes that knowledge grows only when shared and it is important to learn something new every day, as it caters not only to your inherent learning agility but enriches and engages the audience.
Recognized and rewarded for professional contributions by several organisations and management associations across the globe. Amit is one of the most prominent & respected Global HR leaders across industries & sectors. He is a part of the Advisory Board and is a Governing Council Member in several reputed Corporate & Educational Institutions across the country. A globe trotter, Amit understands and integrates multiple cultural diversity and that’s what sets him apart from others.
Co-Founder
Salto Dee Fe
Rajan Kalia is the co-founder of Salto Dee Fe. The firm is focused on solving "Complex People Problems" to enhance productivity and engagement. He has been involved with teaching for Harvard Business Press, Stanford Seed, and Caltech Executive Education.
Rajan has built the New World People Leader framework in the past three years. The framework outlines the new mindset and skills needed by leaders in the age of AI. Two hundred leaders around the world have been trained on the mindsets and new skills.
For the past twelve years Rajan has been consulting in the areas of Productivity, Organisation Transformation, Talent Management, Employee Retention, People Decisions, and Leadership Skilling. He serves on advisory boards of the firms guiding them on building, managing and engaging Talent.
SDF has served close to 200 clients in past 12 years serving 20 industry segments across Asia, the US, and Europe.
He carries three decades of corporate and leadership experience involving in-depth work in HR, Large Scale Organisation Transformation, Leadership Development, Organisation Enablement & Talent Management, and Coaching. He is continuously working in the area of intersection of Strategy and HR.
He has experience in a wide range of industries - Manufacturing, Automobiles, Consulting, FMCG & Financial Services and have worked in 2 startups - FMCG & Financial Services. He specializes in creating value for the two critical stakeholders of the organization - Shareholders and Employees. He specialises in Business HR, Large Scale Organisation Transformation, Organisation Enablement, Leadership Development & Talent Management (including Acquisition & Retention).
Co-founder, Virkware
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Thyag co-founded Virkware to lead the charge on future of work. Early career was spent coding in Silicon Valley followed by consulting with PwC across financial services, retail and pharma sectors. Subsequently he joined Credit Suisse covering multiple roles in Asia over nearly 10 years, most recently leading the Risk & Compliance change teams across Asia Pacific. He is an alum of Bishop Cotton (Bangalore), NTU (Singapore) and IIM Bangalore. In his free time he’s an experimental investor and a passionate tennis player.
Founder & Chairman of RainmakerThinking, Inc.
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Bruce Tulgan is an adviser to business leaders all over the world and a sought-after keynote speaker and seminar leader. He is the founder and CEO of RainmakerThinking, Inc., a management research and training firm, as well as RainmakerLearning, an online training resource. Bruce is the best-selling author of numerous books including Not Everyone Gets a Trophy (Revised & Updated, 2016), Bridging the Soft Skills Gap (2015), The 27 Challenges Managers Face (2014), and It’s Okay to be the Boss (Revised & Updated, 2014). His newest book, The Art of Being Indispensable at Work, is available now from Harvard Business Review Press.
Bruce lectures at the Yale Graduate School of Management, as well as other academic institutions. He has written for the New York Times, the Harvard Business Review, HR Magazine, Training Magazine, and the Huffington Post.
Since 1995, Bruce has worked with tens of thousands of leaders and managers in hundreds of organizations. In recent years, Bruce was named by Management Today as one of the few contemporary figures to stand out as a “management guru” and he was named to the 2009 Thinkers50 Rising Star list. On August 13, 2009, Bruce was honored to accept Toastmasters International’s most prestigious honor, the Golden Gavel. He lives in New Haven, CT with his wife Debby Applegate, Ph.D., who won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for her book The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher (Doubleday, 2006).
Senior Associate Director Knowledge & Advisory - SHRM India & Mena
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Nida is a passionate and entrepreneurial HR Professional with over a decade of experience across diverse areas of the human capital lifecycle. Prior to her current stint with SHRM India, she was working independently and associated with several firms like Great Place to Work Research and Consultancy, School of Inspired Leadership and Institution Builders. She has also been previously employed as a Project Leader with Right Management India. Nida has worked on projects involving both high level strategy and ground level execution. Combination of subject matter expertise with operational understanding and effective stakeholder management has always ensured business impact of HR interventions. Her domain expertise lies in the areas of Competency Management, Talent Assessment, Leader Development, Employee Engagement and Performance Management. In her work in the space of Leader Development, she has worked on content design, development and delivery of more than 200 learning programs across Automotive Manufacturing, FMCG, Construction, IT, BFSI, Telecom, Energy, Government and Pharmaceutical sectors for a host of behavioural and HR functional topics. She holds a degree in Science from Lucknow University and is an MBA from SIBM (Gold Medalist). She is certified to administer and interpret the MBTI psychometric instrument and is also well versed with other psychometric tools like Caliper, Birkman and Learning Style Inventory
Executive Director (HRD) - Management Training Institute, SAIL
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Possess HR experience of more than 35 years at SAIL, and presently heading the SAIL Corporate HRD function at Management Training at Ranchi, Jharkhand.
For about 30 years, handled various HR policies relating to Performance Appraisal and Career Growth schemes, Succession Planning, identifying and developing Leadership potential across SAIL, Bipartite forums at National levels, Employee engagement, CSR, etc., while at Corporate SAIL. Also, as part of Govt Pay panel Committee, contributed in Pay Revision recommendations for over 250 public sector enterprises.
Around 4 years of HR experience at Durgapur Steel Plant, West Bengal, leading/guiding the HR contours in all spheres, viz., improvising framework to enhance efficiency & effectiveness of role of HR to ensure its strategic linkage to business, Managing IR dynamics in a complex multi union space, ensuring quality of life at steel township, implementing CSR initiatives with focus on livelihood schemes, spreading awareness on swatchata among children and rural populace surrounding Durgapur etc.
Presently as head of HRD in SAIL, am heading the Learning and Development function and responsible for formulation and implementation of HRD policy across the company and ensuring alignment of HRD initiatives at Plant/Units with Corporate HRD Policy and directives. I am also presently exploring and reinventing L&D alignments towards improved employee engagement.
Head Product Marketing, Gratifi
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Having received a degree in Economics and Psychology from Pomona College in Los Angeles, Misha believes employee appreciation should be ingrained in the DNA of every organization. With a global experience with firms like Cisco and Amadeus Hospitality, Misha is a young, passionate leader, hoping to change the face of HR in India with Gratifi- a robust SaaS platform focused on structuring total rewards within any organization. While she heads the sales and marketing of the product, her approach to platform implementation caters to the millennial population that constitutes more than 70% of India’s workforce today.
Chief Operating Officer, FarEye
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Pankaj is a seasoned executive with passion for building Global products, Winning teams and High performance culture. He brings rich experience across both B2C and B2B spaces in large MNCs as well as fast growing start-ups. In his 24 years’ career, Pankaj has built several Technology & Product organisations, and large scale products Driving global Technology & Product strategy.
An HBS Alumni, Pankaj is currently Chief Operating Officer at FarEye (https://www.getfareye.com) where he leads Technology, Professional Services, Support & Human Resources. Prior to FarEye, he was CTO at Lenskart where he transformed it into a technology based organisation and played a vital role in Lenskart’s Omni-channel strategy, and its journey into Unicorn club.
Pankaj has around dozen Patents and Several Research Papers in top rated conferences and journals. He is also an active angel investor and mentor & advisor to some interesting start-ups.
Managing Partner & Global CHRO Practice, Gladwin International
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Sanjay is a senior Business & HR professional with global work experience that spans across APAC, MENA, North America, LatAm, and the Caribbean. He has worked in Singapore and in industries like Telecommunications/Engineering/Energy/IT & ITES/Services, Healthcare, and Manufacturing.
As an M & A and Integration practitioner, his expertise lies in Developing Expansion Strategies, Target Evaluation, Due Diligence, Change management, and Synergy Retention.
His HR domain expertise covers Talent Management (Succession Planning, Leadership pipeline, HiPo programs, etc), Performance Management, Diagnostic studies, Leadership Development, Facilitation of training programs & workshops, HR Policies & Processes, C & B, Digitisation of HR, etc. Sanjay is a Certified Executive Coach with experience in managing P&L.
He is a product of FMS, Univ. Of Delhi and holds certification on MBTI, DiSC, and Crucial Conversations with extensive work on Belbin’s Team Roles.
Chief Talent Officer, Piramal Pharma
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HR professional with over 18 years of industry and consulting experience across areas like HR Strategy & Transformation, Organization Effectiveness, Talent Management, Learning and Development, Performance Management and Organization Design. Currently leads Talent Management, Learning and Organisational Development and Talent Acquisition for Piramal Pharma Ltd. In the past has led the People & Organization Consulting practice for West India and Bangladesh at PwC
Director (Personnel), NHPC Limited
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N K Jain Director(Personnel), NHPC has B.E(Industrial Engineering) from IIT Roorkee and LLB from Delhi University. He Joined the Indian Railway Personnel Services through the Civil Services Examination.
During hi career spanning 32 years, he has worked in varied and challenging assignments in the Indian Railways,IRCTC, Railway Ministry, Air India and NHPC.
He has gained rich experience of the transport sector, service sector, aviation sector, and power sector, He has hands-on experience of handling difficult personnel and industrial relations issues and seven years experience of working in the Boards of Air India and NHPC Limited.
Director (HR & Legal), IFFCO
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A core HR & IR professional, Mr R.P. Singh, is Director (HR & Legal) at M/s Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd., New Delhi, the largest manufacturer and marketer of fertiliser in Asia. Mr. Singh is also a part-time director on the board of PHD Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Kisan International Trading FZE, IFFCO-MC Crop Science Pvt. Ltd., IFFCO-eBazar Ltd.
Graduated in Political Science (Hons.) from Bhagalpur University and post-graduation in Labour and Social Welfare from Patna University, Mr. Singh had started his career with Telco (now Tata Motors) at Jamshedpur (India) in 1975 and has also worked with British India Corporation and Pyrites, Phosphates & Chemicals Ltd. (PPCL).
With a cumulative experience of more than 4 decades, he has set benchmarks and has unveiled new verticals in the areas of corporate policies, handling arbitrations and litigations, manpower rationalization, employee engagement, negotiating long-term settlements with trade unions, contract labour, L&D, building talent pipeline, legal due diligence of prospective acquisition and collaboration, negotiating mergers & acquisitions, joint venture formations etc. His contribution in the field of HR is widely recognized in the corporate world.
Mr. Singh has been actively associated with the activities of Indian Council of Arbitration, NIPM, NHRDN, PHDCCI, AIMA, India Chief HR Officers Forum etc. He has also served as a member on the panel set up by the Minister of Civil Aviation, Government of India, to facilitate integration of members of staff in the wake of merger of Indian Airlines and Air India.
Ardent believer in value based organization, he has always espoused the need for inculcating ethics and values in employees since their on-boarding. In recognition of his contribution in the field of HR and Leadership, Mr. Singh has been bestowed with several awards and accolades. An exemplary communicator with proven skills, he has travelled widely and has participated in various national, international seminars and conferences.
HR Director - South Asia & Middle East, The Lubrizol Corporation
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Sumit Neogi is currently working HR Director for South Asia & Middle East with The Lubrizol Corporation (A Berkshire Hathaway Company).
He is a HR Leader with 19+ years of work experience in HR Consulting, HR Business Partnership and Retail Sales & Marketing.
He has completed PG Diploma in PM & IR from XLRI Jamshedpur, PG Diploma in Counselling from TISS & BE in Mechanical Engineering from MANIT Bhopal. He is a Doctoral Scholar with SP Jain School of Global Management.
He also holds Diploma in transactional analysis and certifications in SPHR, GPHR, SAP-HCM & SHRM-SCP.
He is a TEDx Speaker and was recently recognized as one of the Top 50 HR Influencers in India by SHRM.
He is the winner of People Matters DDI Are you in the List Awards in 2012 and Jombay 40Under Forty in 2018. These awards recognize potential future HR Leaders.
He is passionate about sharing his learnings and coaching / mentoring young professionals. He has been a visiting faculty & guest lecturer to top B Schools. Sumit is regularly invited as key note speaker / panel speaker in HR / Leadership conferences.
He has worked with Reliance Industries Limited as Vice President as a part of their HR Leadership Team. He has worked with Cipla, Hewitt Associates and Bharat Petroleum in the past.
He has worked with Cipla Limited as Sr. Director & Head HR Commercial for Chronic & Emerging, Alternate Channels & Super Specialties Therapy Verticals. He also managed for Corporate Functions HR for Cipla Limited as head of the function
In his previous stint with RIL, he has worked as Head of HR Capability Development Centre of Excellence for RIL Group. He also led HR Business Partnership for Nagothane Manufacturing Division for nearly 3 years.
He is a certified HOGAN & MBTI Specialist and masters the art of Transaction Analysis in professional Environment.
Head - HR, Renault India
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An Ex-Indian Army Officer with commendable experience in managing the entire gamut of Leadership & Human Resource Management, Talent Management, Talent Development, Change Management and Operations Management.
Alumnus of IIM, Lucknow, has over 15years of extended experience in Human Resource Management & Development and hands-on experience in Project Management.
Author and publisher of a novel: ‘THOSE UNKNOWN’ (well appreciated by Army Top Brasses)
Worked profoundly in J&K in Counter-Insurgency & Counter Terrorism environment. Had trained officers & employees in various forums on Leadership-self motivation-communication-conflict management-resilience etc.
Specializes in Strategic HR Initiatives, Leadership development and Cross Cultural Sensitization.
Cherish spirituality and continuously strive for the ultimate!
Associate Director Advisory - India & Sri Lanka
SHRM
Saurabh is an Entrepreneur & HR/Strategy Advisor with over 15 years of learning and experience across the People & Org consulting space. Saurabh brings in deep expertise within the Talent Management solutions landscape having worked on projects across sectors like Oil & Gas, Metal and Mining, BFSI, PSUs, IT/ITeS, Auto, FMCG, Ecommerce, EdTech & Startup.
During his entrepreneurial stint, he founded Realytics, a predictive analytics startup for employee engagement & progression inspired on Mihaly’s Flow Dynamics. He has also been advising startups within consulting and edtech space on talent & HR practices, Product market fit & Growth strategy.
Prior to joining SHRM, Saurabh has worked with organizations like Thomas Assessment, MaFoi Management, Pearson, GPTW, KPMG and EY across roles spanning across Business development and Project management , before starting his own gig as an independent Advisory partner.
Specialties: Cognitive and Behavioural Assessment Consulting, Assessment/Development Centre, Employee Engagement, Culture Study, Talent Analytics, Leadership Development and Executive Coaching, Startup Consulting, Growth Strategies.
VP & Global Operations Leader, Genpact
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Gaurav has over 20 years of experience in Banking and Insurance businesses Operations. In his current role at Genpact, he is a Global Operations Leader for multiple clients across the P&C Commercial lines for both the US and UK geographies and drives the organization strategy & client transformation with an unwavering focus on delivering value to the client and helping their business prepare for the future.
In his extensive career, he has successfully led large accounts for top Insurance Clients (US and UK P&C/L&A) and has been instrumental in enabling his organizations build new capabilities in acquiring businesses in multiple product lines, gain footprint in new geographies and end to end process reengineering and improvement projects for clients.
During his outsourcing industry career, he has had stints with GECIS (now Genpact), EXL and TCS. He is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt from GE Capital.
Co-Founder, BoardsNXT & SHRM Advisor
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Debabrat (Debu) Mishra is a Dubai-based Management Consultant and Board Advisor who helps leaders solve the complex world of work. He has been advising private and government organizations in the Middle East on their Human Capital issues for over two decades.
Managing Partner, Capital League
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Sapna is the founder and Managing Partner of Capital League. Capital League is a ‘boutique’ wealth management firm, set up in 2003. It is India’s only all-women wealth management firm.
Capital League has been awarded ‘Best performing IFA by CNBC TV 18’ on 6 occasions. The firm has won the ‘Think Big Award’ for team building twice and many other industry accolades over the years.
Sapna is an Electronics & Telecom engineer by education. After acquiring a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from FMS, Delhi (’93) she joined BNP Paribas. She has over 10 years of banking experience and a cumulative of 26 years in the financial services industry.
Sapna is a member of MDRT (Million Dollar Round Table), US - The Premier Association of Financial Professionals with six ‘Top of the Table’ (TOT) honors. . She is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and a member of FPA (Financial Planners Association).
Sapna has on many occasions been invited to speak and write on topics related to wealth management and financial planning. She was recognized as among ‘India’s Top 100 women in Finance- 2019’ by AIWMI.
Sapna has authored the book ‘Investing is the New cooking’.
President & Global HR Head, Alkem Laboratories Ltd
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Rajorshi Ganguli is with Alkem Laboratories Limited as their President & Global HR Head since 2017. Overall he brings with him about 27years of experience in the field of human resource function handling variety of transformational roles both in India and abroad. Prior to Alkem he was with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories for 13 years and before that he had stints with BPCL & Usha Martin. Rajorshi has authored several articles and case analysis, is a frequent well known speaker in different forums. He is a “Certified Management Trainer” and an alumnus of Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Ranchi.
VP HR - Organization Design & Leadership Talent development, Genpact
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I thrive on new experiences and challenges. In the last 21 years I have worked in areas such as operations, six sigma, human resources, compensation and benefits, talent acquisition, HR business partner and now organisation and staffing. Each role was demanding in its own way and helped me discover my own potential and problem solving abilities. I regard my self as a result-oriented individual who is passionate about learning each day. Collaborative and empowering workspace brings out the best in me.
Specialties: Talent Acquisition, Employee Relations, HR generalist, Compensation strategist & Equity compensation, Organization Design, Performance Management, Learning and Leadership Development
VP & Country Leader – India, SumTotal Systems
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Rajiv Kumar is the Vice President & Country Leader of SumTotal India. In his role he is responsible for leading the Sales and Consulting Lines of Business across the region including Presales, Channels, Professional Services and Strategic Customer Program. His focus lies in strategy, innovation, people management and customer experience.
As the Country Leader, he holds the responsibility to drive the next phase of growth for SumTotal in India overseeing and providing guidance to sales, customer support, professional services, partner ecosystem and marketing initiatives.
Rajiv has two decades of rich experience in business management, strategy, sales, corporate affairs, market development and marketing Management. Prior to SumTotal, Rajiv was the Vice President & Head of Oracle Business at Sify Technologies. Previously, he was the Sales Leader of the Oracle’s Technology business in Public Sector in India. He was leading the strategic initiatives of Big Data, Data Warehousing, Information Security, Information Lifecycle Management and Cloud Computing for Oracle in the Public Sector.
A 20+ year sales and marketing veteran, Rajiv has managed Entrepreneurial roles with exposure to multiple functions across verticals and geographies in large MNCs as well as Start-up organisations.
His is a firm believer that success lies in building talented teams and strong customer relationships; and an effective leader should focus on getting the best people for the job, giving them the tools and skills they need to succeed, and celebrating victories with them.
Corporate Head -Talent Acquisition, BPCL
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An HR person with business experience. Creating connect between customers and HR strategy. Adept at rolling out well planned strategic interventions for achievement of business goals and plans. Expert in Learning and development functions. Accredited with innovation in L&D, Talent Management, strategic HR.
Head, HR, CSR & Internal Branding, RBL Bank
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Ms. Shanta Vallury Gandhi is the Head of Human Resource, CSR and Internal Branding at RBL Bank. Ms. Gandhi brings with her over 30 years of experience in the financial services sector spanning various roles and functions including Business, HR and CSR. She has been in business for more than 25 years and in 2015 she moved to Head-HR
She is part of the core transformational team that set up RBL Bank. She has been instrumental in designing the HR, CSR policies, competency framework of the Bank and is also is the Chairperson of the Diversity Committee as well as the Staff Accountability Committee of the Bank. As Head of CSR she has formulated the CSR policy, strategy, planned employee engagement initiatives and has been responsible in making the Bank a socially responsible organization both in spirit and action.
Ms. Gandhi has a Masters in Marketing Management from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and Masters in Economics from University of Mumbai.
Head - HR, Sitel Group, India
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25 years in HR IN VARIOUS Industry verticals ranging from Automobile, Engineering, Defense Aviation and Contact Centers. Worked in Dell, IBM before Sitel.
Area of Expertise: HR Business Consulting, Comp & Ben, Org design and behavioral interventions, HR Workflow management
Personal: Lives in Mumbai with wife and a son. Like to read books on Espionage theories
VP - HR Head, IBM
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Chinni has over 24 years of work experience having started his career in Corporate Consulting and Corporate Finance with Arthur Anderson in New York. He joined IBM in 2003 and held multiple roles in the business domain. His tryst with HR finally happened in 2005. Today, as the CHRO for IBM India/South Asia, he is responsible for all aspects of HR including the people strategy, leadership, skills, career, engagement, employee services, labor cost, and diversity & inclusion of the workforce across India/South Asia.
HR in IBM has re-designed all aspects of the company’s people agenda and management systems to shape a culture of learning, innovation and agility. The HR function has digitally transformed incorporating AI and Automation across all offerings. Chinni has championed the transformation and adoption of these methodologies- at scale, driving company-wide, co-created solutions.
Chinni strongly believes that it is the open mindedness and willingness to take those calculated risks that takes you places.
On the educational side, he has a Bachelors degree in Economics from Cornell University and an MBA in Finance from Northeastern University.
Global Talent & Enablement Services Leader, EY Global Delivery Services
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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.
Senior VP & MD, Sites (India), Salesforce
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Sanket is instrumental in driving the next phase of growth for Salesforce in India making it a global hub for talent and innovation. Combining the best of design thinking and digital strategies Sanket will work with teams to build breakthrough customer experiences leveraging his passion for innovation to deliver future-ready solutions accelerating growth for Salesforce in India.
Prior to Salesforce, Sanket was with Intuit where he played a strategic role to further its mission of “powering prosperity around the world”.
In his previous role as Group Vice President at Oracle, he was responsible for the R&D organizations in Bangalore, NCR, Pune, and St. Petersburg. He had also founded the global program. His tenure at Oracle began in 1996 as a founding member of the Research and Development center in Portland, Oregon. Sanket moved to India in 2006 with Oracle where he led R&D. In 2012, Sanket became the Chief Technology Officer of MakeMyTrip.com, India’s largest online travel company.
An MBA from the University of Oregon and MS in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, he also completed Dual Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from Cornell University. He also holds multiple patents.
Market HR Leader, Google India
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Prriti is the Market HR Leader for Google India. In this role she is responsible for the people and talent agenda for Google in India.
A seasoned leader, Prriti brings experience of over two decades in driving various facets of Human Resources in large International organisations across different industries. Her keen passion in HR includes Talent, Inclusion and large scale change-management .
She is recognised in the Industry as a leading HR voice, speaking on relevant topics like wellbeing, inclusion and talent management in relevant industry forums. She serves on the HR council of FICCI. She enjoys engagement with students and has been a speaker at leading B schools across India.
Before Google Prriti was the HR Director South Asia for AkzoNobel. She was VP HR at GE and held leadership roles at GSK and UNICEF.
AVP TA, Genpact
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Rajiv comes with 23 years of experience in Talent Acquisition and Human Resources. In his current role as India Hiring leader, he is responsible for Talent Strategy and Acquisition to help fuel business growth objectives. He has been instrumental in driving impactful initiatives which includes setting up Global Sourcing CoE aimed at centralizing and standardizing Sourcing efforts from Offshore location.
Group CHRO, Adani Group
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Vikram is a seasoned Human Resources professional with over three decades of experience across a range of diverse businesses, geographies, and cultures. His expertise lies in thoughtful management of the intersection of strategy, talent, and organization culture, with extensive outcomes in organizational effectiveness, talent management, succession planning and leadership development.
Prior to joining the Adani Group, Vikram was the Head of Human Resources at HSBC India, one of the world's largest banking and financial services organizations. Before HSBC, Vikram was at the American International Group as the Regional Human Resources Director for the Mediterranean, Middle East and South Asia region and participated in AIG’s rapid growth through several startup joint ventures and acquisitions. His career also included several years at Inchcape Plc, Dubai, the ANZ Grind lays Bank, India, and Indian Hotels Company Ltd, where he has held multiple roles in HR.
Vikram holds a master’s degree in Human Resources from XLRI Jamshedpur and has certifications in Leading Change, Management & Innovation from the Harvard Business School. Vikram is the President of the National HRD Network, Mumbai Chapter and has been a recipient of the GNOSIS Excellence award from XLRI.
Former CHRO, Volvo
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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.
Corporate HR Head, UB Group
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Mr Deepak Mishra is the Head of Corporate HR for United Breweries Limited. He leads Strategic HR IR initiatives, Talent Management, L&D, HR Operations, HR Technology, Comp & Ben, Talent Acquisition for United Breweries Ltd. In the past he had worked with telecom companies such as Airtel & MTS. He has gathered a rich experience in the field of HR in his 19 years career.
He is an MBA from Bhopal University & has completed one-year program in Human Resource Management from IIM Calcutta. He loves acquiring new knowledge, he is currently pursuing Diploma in Human Rights Law from National Law School of India University Bangalore.
Besides his professional career -he likes to contribute to the fraternity, he writes poems & management articles, he loves teaching and training and he feels absolutely delighted when he is on his bike.
Co-founder & Executive Director, enParadigm
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His endeavour to make the complex simple and his belief in the power of learning to make people and business better, has been the significant driving force in the Enparadigm journey. A journey of bringing together business thought, learning methodology, and user experience into our technology driven learning platforms.
When not working with clients to shape their learning outcomes, he can be found spending time with his family, or adding to his dog-eared collection of management literature.
He is an engineering graduate in Computer science, he is an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.
Chief Digital & Operating Officer, 1to1help
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Innovator and Disruptor. Driving product innovation/transformation and creating scalable and yet relevant emotional wellbeing solutions in the Indian Context @1to1help.net
Comes with rich and diverse experience of advising and working with various fortune 500 organizations on Digital Transformation. She was instrumental in also transforming the culture, and capability of the employees of digital companies. She was on the board of a Non-Profit, Melton foundation which is working on defining and promoting Global Citizenship and focusing on issues that have a global impact. She Created an Organization called "Artyfy" which is trying to touch the lives of citizens through unique artistic experiences @home, Schools, and Apartments. This is essential in a high-paced, mechanized, digital era where humans are in a persistent digital dystopia.
Head - Total Rewards, India, Adobe
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Chandrashekarr B S is working with Adobe Systems India as Head of Total Rewards, India. He holds a post-graduation certification from XLRI, Jamshedpur in Human Resources Management along with Masters in Human Resources Management from Pondicherry University. He has a rich experience in Compensation and Benefits function spanning over 2 decades with organizations like Societe Generale, Mphasis, IBM, iGATE (Capgemini) and Motorola. His last assignment was with Dell, where he was the Lead – Compensation and Benefits for over 13000 + employees. In addition to his Compensation and Benefits experience, he also carries a rich experience in Change Management & M&A
Head, Campus Relations, HCL Technologies
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Ashish is a versatile HR professional with over 17+ years of multi-dimensional background in Operations, Project Management, Workforce planning, Transitions and Recruitment in India, US & UK. He is currently Heads Campus Relations at HCL Technologies. His journey with HCL has been interesting into various roles and has seen multiple phases of IT industry be it Service focus, Recession, Product focus, disruptive innovations. He always had a need for New Challenge and desire to acquire New Skills. He chooses whatever keeps him motivated and excited. He is vivid speaker at various colleges and HR events.
Ashish is well balanced Leader in achieving high results into core strategic tasks and in taking along his team in success Journey.
Head - HR, India, NatWest Group
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A corporate professional for over 25 years, Maneesh has held a variety of roles in his career spanning across continents and functions. A Chartered Accountant by education, Maneesh has a diverse set of experience across Finance, Risk, Audit, Operations and Human Resources.
Currently working as the Head of HR, India at Natwest Group, he is responsible for providing thought leadership and counsel for all people-related matters. As Managing Director HR, Maneesh plays a key role in leading the transformation, culture and capability uplift for the organisation. Maneesh has worked internationally and has held several global and regional roles in HR across operations, reward, business partnering, and talent management.
Prior to joining Natwest Group, Maneesh worked with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) for 10 years. His last role with SCB was to Head HR Operations and Reward for Africa covering 15 countries across East, West, and South Africa.
Maneesh loves watching live sports, travelling, and playing Badminton.
VP HR, Reliance Jio
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Harjeet is an international speaker, author, poet, visionary, influencer and a HR Leader. He is an alumnus of IIT Roorkee and INSEAD. He is currently working with Reliance Jio.
He is a SAP HCM consultant, Six Sigma Greet Belt, White Belt in Executive Coaching and Assessor for Predictive Index. He has 2 published patents.
He has been conferred with HR Leadership Award, Pride of Nation Award, HR personality of the year, Global Digital Ambassador and Global Learning Award. Harjeet has been a LinkedIn Power Profile, Chicken Soup Writer, TEDx speaker, Guest Faculty at IIM Ahmedabad, Board Member of Federation of World Academics, Member of CII HR IR committee and Co-chair of Nasscom Diversity Committee.
Founder, People Talent International
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Runa has two decades plus HR and OD experience in the Fintech, IT/ITES, Professional Services, manufacturing and retail sectors in India, US and UK. She is the founder and director of People Talent International and had partnered with multiple Entrepreneurs as Business. Prior to her Business role she worked as Country Director HR of Clifford Chance, Center Head HR of Convergys, Head HR in Dalmia Group, Aptara, Escorts Finance Ltd.
Runa had been awarded as Top 50 HR Influencer by ETHR in 2021 and 101 Women Social Media Influencer in the year 2015 and 2016. She had been awarded as Top 100 Innovation HR leader by World HRD Congress in 2017 & 2018 and Top 30 HR influencer in 2018 by SHRM India. She had been awarded Top 50 HR Influencer in 2019 by SHRM APAC and MENA and SHRM Official Influencer 2020.
Runa is a renowned Keynote Speaker in both Corporate and and Academia and had conducted Behavioral Training for multiple industries. Her Organization Development, transformation project and Learning intervention includes facilitation of leadership development program, Masterclass on Design Thinking, Virtual and blended learning facilitation, Team Intervention, Business Communication, Virtual Etiquette skill development, On-ground and Virtual Team Building program, Diversity & Inclusion learning sessions.
She is associated with various start-ups and academia as business consultant/advisor for product development, team development and Market outreach support. She had been associated with various colleges as an advisory board member in India and a freelance Lecturer on HR Analytics, Design Thinking, SHRM, Critical Thinking & Problem Solving in India and overseas.
The evolution of corporate social responsibility in India inspired her to lead a NGO SDEAR on Education & Skilling, associated with Pure India Trust on Girl Child Education. She is founder of a NGO WOS (women of substance) India, which supports Women Empowerment and recognizes “Changemakers”. As Jury member of Ashoka Foundation, selected social entrepreneurs for the nationwide Youth-venture program.
Runa is a Fellow and PHD program from Academy of HRD, Ahmedabad, Trained in Gemba Kaizen, Prince2, NLP, Thomas profiling and various corporate training module. Associated with diverse training and coaching groups, SHRM, WIAL India, WASME, Life member of AIMA, NHRDN and ISTD. She is in core committee of NHRDN and Delhi NCR Chapter and leads the Social Media and Communication initiative for HR community.
Her Mantra: Winners Move on and keep Achieving in Life
GM HR Talent Organisation & Integration, HUL
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Anandi Shankar is a psychologist by academic qualification and then made a career switch to join the corporate world. In her 17 year career with Hindustan Unilever Limited, she has worked across the value chain on partnering and expertise. Until recently she led the Merger of GSK consumer Health with Hindustan Unilever Limited, the largest M&A deal in India bringing in Horlicks and Boost into the Unilever stable. She currently heads Talent and Organisation for Unilever South Asia. She is also a trained Bharat Natyam dancer and if she wasn’t an HR professional, she would be working for the welfare and inoculation of stray dogs
HR Leader - Change Enabler
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Leena is the Vice President- Group Human Resources at the Tata Group since September 2018. In this role, she is responsible for group Performance, Rewards, Diversity and Digital Transformation along with leading HR function for Tata Sons that sets policy and governance for all companies at the Tata Group.
Leena has over two decades of experience having previously worked with Sun Pharmaceuticals, GE, Accenture, Aon Hewitt and Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Healthcare in various HR leadership roles.
Leena was leading HR function for global R&D and Quality organisations in addition to Talent Management at Sun Pharma prior to joining Tata Group. Prior to this stint Leena was working as Director- Compensation & Benefits responsible for C&B and HR Operations for GE in South Asia and ASEAN regions and C&B Branding and Communication work for GE globally. In addition she was leading the GE Women’s Network for GE South Asia and led several key initiatives developing diverse talent, during this tenure GE South Asia won GE Women’s Network Best Region awards twice in a span of three years based on the impact created. She joined GE in 2005 as the HR leader for Energy & Aviation engineering organizations based out of Bangalore.
She started her career with Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSK) from and worked on assignments in HR and Sales. She joined Hewitt Associates and consulted in the area of C&B and Job Evaluation for clients spanning varied industries like Consumer, IT and ITES industries. After working for two and a half years with Hewitt, she joined Accenture to lead their Compensation & Benefits function for ITES business.
Leena has an MBA degree in Human Resources from Symbiosis Institute of Management, Pune and Bachelors degree in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi.
A progressive thinker Leena is always keen to solve tough challenges and create an impact.
Head - Total Rewards & Performance Management, Lupin
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A seasoned Human Resources professional with well rounded experience spanning HR Strategy, Processes, Operations and Consulting across Manufacturing, Banking, Financial Services, IT and ITeS industries. Deep technical expertise in Strategy, Governance, Analytics, Total Rewards, Strategic Workforce Planning, Organization Restructuring, Leadership Development, Employee Engagement, Shared Services and Program Management. Broad based leadership and managerial experience across all aspect Human Resources, Labor Relations, Administration, Business Management and Client Management.
Associate VP - Talent Acquisition, Cvent
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Ashish Mishra, Associate Vice President – Recruitment for Cvent in India. Is responsible to fulfil the hiring needs for India, APAC, Australia and Middle East.
Ashish has 16 years of experience and has successfully lead recruitment function in large organizations as well as in the complex start-up. Prior to Cvent he was Global Head – Talent Acquisition for GreyOrange, a robotics startup in India. He set up the entire recruitment function for India and globally across APAC & Japan, EU and US and ensured global standardization and adoption of the processes. Prior to GreyOrange, he was leading the Analytics and Consulting recruitment at EXL. Ashish was managing recruitment for APAC and Europe and was working closely with analytics leadership for other key roles across locations.
Ashish has grown into a recruitment leader and in this journey he has held various positions while working with organizations like Keane Inc, Bank Of America, Honeywell. He is a Computer Engineer by qualification and has done certifications in Software Development from NIIT.
Head People & Culture, IT & Administration
RCG Global Services
With over 26 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. At RCG, he is currently responsible for Global Staffing & Talent Transformation and Heads HR, Administration & IT for APAC.
Satish’s leadership experience spans across organisations such as Mphasis, Cognizant, HCL Technologies, and Siemens. He has also been the recipient of awards such as Forbes Top 30 Talent Leaders of 2023, Asia’s 100 HR Power leaders, Global Achievers Award 2022, Indian Achievers Award 2021, the Top 100 HR Tech Minds Award, Top 50 Aspiring Researchers 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 & Mentalist, he has worked on over 1300 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 has authored a book on AI, co-authored 2 books on HR and has 8 patent applications published. He 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)
Director Human Resources India, Middle East, Africa
Lubrizol
Shillpa has over 2 decades of experience in HR. She is currently Director Human Resources, India Middle East Africa, at lubrizol Corporation. She has strategized reformative talent policies, procedures and programs across Employee Engagement, Talent Development, Employee Relations, Organization Effectiveness and Leadership Development.
In her prior role Shillpa served as Director of Human Resources for thyssenkrupp. Her leadership development journey has been unique with wonderful experiences across diverse industries in Human capital / resources & Dynamic Business Leaders.
Her educational qualifications include Global HR Leaders Program from NUS Business School and a degree in Business Management with a focus on Finance from Bangalore University.
Integrity, Trust, Humility, Respect, Family Hard Work, Excellence and Perseverance are attributes that define her as an individual.
Head HR, Sophos
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Experienced HR leader with extensive expertise on Business Partnerships, Mergers and Acquisitions, Org Design, Shared Services, Transformation, Change Management, Talent Acquisition, Risk and Controls,
Country Director & Sr. VP, Artech Infosystems
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An accomplished growth leader and a change-agent, Shiv Nath Ghosh is Artech’s Country Director Senior Vice President. He has a strong leadership personality and a focused vision, with expertise and knowledge on areas of Operational Excellence across multiple industries that he is now using to lead Artech Infosystems in the Indian Staffing Market.
Shiv has re-defined Artech India’s vision and business strategy while functioning as the driving force behind the company’s growth and development. He has over 30 years of domestic and international experience with Fortune 500 organizations like Microsoft, GE, and Dell etc. at top leadership levels with cross functional expertise in serving a broad portfolio of products and services (Information Technology, Financial Services, Telecom, & now Workforce Solutions). In his previous roles, Shiv has a track record of achieving organizational growth at a rapid rate while establishing profitable strategic partnerships and proving his operational excellence across channels of Sales, Delivery, Support, Operations, Finance, Marketing and HR.
Shiv - an engineer by profession, is known for his metric based approach to address complex issues and fact based decision making while remaining a motivational leader. He is adept at people management and has built and mentored highly productive & motivated teams. He has also managed multiple partner ecosystems at domestic & international levels. Currently, Shiv is also associated as a member with the Indian Staffing Federation (ISF) & other bodies.
Director, TATA Management Training Centre
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Emmanuel David has been at the helm of leadership in multi-sector companies from Auto, Hospitality, Infrastructure, Financial Services to Oil & Gas. His experiences span businesses such as family-owned entities, JVs, and MNCs. He witnessed the complete life cycle right from start-up, growth, downsizing, and turnaround. This wealth of experience has equipped him with rich insights into the interplay between culture, strategy, and decision-making.
This repertoire of experience has enabled Emmanuel to influence the pedagogy and portfolio of program offerings at TMTC. Partnering with senior Tata Leaders, he has endeavoured to create the context for learning through various experience touch-points. He has further developed and curated a body of knowledge around Unconventional Learning, which is part of some select Leadership Programs. . Under his Leadership, TMTC has been awarded for Excellence in Experiential Learning Programs by Business World People L&D Excellence Summit & Awards 2020 and TMTC has also received the Bronze Award at the GlobalCCU Awards ceremony held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in May 2019, in the Best Corporate University - Business impact category. Emmanuel was awarded the "British Gas Chairman's Safety Award" for Social Impact for his leadership in the Relief & Rehabilitation efforts during the Surat Floods in 2006. This effort, during the floods, has become a Case Study at the IIM, Ahmedabad, on the Leadership role of HR in times of crises.
An Alumnus of XLRI has equipped himself with an Advanced Management Program of AIMA on Strategic Profitability Management. He is also a certified Belbin Team Role Facilitator (UK) and Advanced Hogan Assessment Interpretation Coach, USA. He is a certified coach of Erickson International and a certified Leadership Circle Profile Practitioner. He has coached several Tata Leaders and others in their leadership journey. He is also one of the select groups of Mentors at Columbia University's MS Program on Technology Management USA to provide regular and individual guidance to the Master's program students to bring their project ideas into action.
He has successfully resolved legacy industrial disputes in several companies like Shriram Honda, British Gas, and Voltas. He has inspired and introduced best practices in culture and human resources in greenfield ventures like Volvo and Oberoi Hotels, Bangalore, and raised Employer-Employee relations to new levels. He is a regular speaker at various national and international forums. He spoke on 'Authentic Leadership' at GE Crotonville's Manager Development Course in USA. He has addressed the IAS Cadre on Leadership. He is a panelist for the selection of Tata Administrative Services Managers of the Group.
Emmanuel makes time for community activities. He serves on the Board of St. Peter's High School, Panchgani, and Under the Mango Tree, an NGO (UTMT). UTMT is a social enterprise that promotes beekeeping to increase agricultural productivity, enhance incomes, and improve marginal farmers' livelihoods in India. Emmanuel is also an avid blogger, writer, photographer, and experimental chef.
Head of HCM Transformation, Oracle India
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Hardeep serves as the Head of HCM Applications Strategy, India, at Oracle Corporation. Prior to joining Oracle, Hardeep was Vice President – Consulting at Right Management, where he worked across Asia & Middle East with clients from diverse industries. Over the last two decades he has been an entrepreneur, a student of human resources and as a consultant to many Fortune 500 Organizations on areas of Talent Management, Organization Design & Development, Employee Experience, Leadership Development, Succession Planning, and Career Management.
Managing Partner & Chief Mentor, Persayprem Business Designs
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S. Premkumar is the Managing Partner & Chief Mentor of Persayprem Business Designs LLP, a transformation consulting firm that is focused on building scale in Mid-to large-sized businesses. Scale is achieved through a Design Thinking Framework that aligns the company’s triad of People Capital, Technology Assets & Go to Market into a cohesive Full Potential strategy and supports the company in achieving the enhanced results.
Prem is the advisor & executive mentor to the Board for India’s largest Employee Assistance Program (EAP) company 1to1help, that is growing exponentially and has been in forefront of Emotional Wellness that touched over 4 million lives.
His various other corporate roles included Group CEO of Apollo Hospitals Group, and member of several executive teams including as the CEO of the largest Computer Hardware & Systems Integrator company, National Chairman of the IT-ITES sector in Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), & President of HCL Technologies.
SVP & CHRO, M&M Automotive Business
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Global HR Professional with significant experience in leadership and organisation development, executive coaching, org design, HR transformation, acquisition integration & cultural assimilation.
Chief Advisor, Keka
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I help Business Owners and HR heads who are striving for a better return, wanting to keep their people happy and need more visibility. My expertise is in recommending HR technologies based on the business needs.
Director - Knowledge & Advisory
SHRM India
She is part of the Knowledge Advisory team at SHRM India focused on helping clients achieve their business objectives through effective consultation and project management support. Over the last decade, she has worked extensively in the area of Learning and Organizational Development in organizations such as Adobe, Evalueserve and Wipro. A passionate facilitator, she has facilitated more than 300 virtual learning sessions and over 5000 hours of class-room learning on a variety of topics. She is a certified SDI (Strengths Deployment Inventory), Saville Wave and Hogan practitioner. A Vipassana meditator and a trekking enthusiast on the side, draws tremendous inspiration from the mountains.
A 6-year-old kid from Lunglei, Mizoram, singing Vande Mataram
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Esther Hnamte was born on the 19th of June, 2016. She started singing at the age of 2 and released her first music video when she was 3. Esther is now studying in school under the sponsorship of Assam rifles HQRS, Shillong.
This year’s Expo will offer a great opportunity for HR Leaders and Influencers to discuss the latest trends and disruptions influencing the Work, Worker and Workplace.
