An HR professional with 20 years of industry experience, Aarif Aziz has assumed roles of increasing leadership responsibility. He is currently the CHRO for Diageo India. Prior to this, for 18 years, he worked in several of GE’s businesses, including power, healthcare, industrial, energy, GE Global Research, and has been an HR partner for teams across North America, Europe, South America and Asia. Mr Aziz has strong cross-functional experience in manufacturing and services, and comes with in-depth business knowledge. He is a graduate of GE’s Human Resources Leadership Programme (HRLP) and a certified Black Belt in Six Sigma.

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Shantanu Bhave is a dedicated and resourceful senior HR management professional with over 15 years of experience across diverse organisational domains. He currently serves as Head – HR and Administration at Naprod Life Science. Mr Bhave has extensive experience in strategic HR, organisation development, performance management, leadership development, succession planning, human capital enhancement, and talent acquisition and retention. He is an experienced leader with an outstanding track record of delivery in diverse cultural environments, and excellent change management credentials. He has expertise in implementing complex, cross-functional HR strategic initiatives, and incorporating processes and policies that are unique to the needs of the business.

Anita Borulkar has close to 21 years of experience, including in HR leadership roles at the plant and corporate levels. She has worked in a global environment at the senior level, and her strengths lie in the areas of strategy formulation and execution, designing and implementing organisation-wide HR processes, organisation design, change management, statutory compliance and legal frameworks. Ms Borulkar has previously worked with Century Enka, Crompton Greaves, Lear Corporation, Eaton Corporation and Sandvik Asia. In addition to her corporate work, she is a guest faculty member at several management institutes, including Symbiosis, Sinhagad, DY Patil, Indira, Indus Business School, Manipal University and Alva’s Institutes. Ms Borulkar has been trained in large scale interactive process and in the ‘HR value proposition’ school of thought. She has developed practical HR tools, formats and processes for the effective implementation of HR in the manufacturing sector, and is passionate about training and HR interventions. Ms Borulkar has been honoured with this year’s ‘Women Leadership Award’ from the World HRD Congress and World Women Leadership Congress.

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Jui Dabir heads the Human Resources function for India at Serdia Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of the Servier Research Group, France’s second-largest multinational pharmaceutical company. She has been in her current role for almost seven years, and has been associated with the company for more than 19 years. Ms Dabir holds a master’s degree in French literature and a post-graduate diploma in personnel management and industrial relations. She began her career as a French language professional and subsequently moved into the HR function. With more than 27 years of diverse experience, she has previously worked at the Consulate of Israel and PAL-Peugeot.

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Sushil Barkur is an expert in creating and executing a result-oriented L&D strategy to support the overall business strategy and business growth. Mr Barkur has 19 years of learning experience, and proven expertise in setting up and running training and L&D departments in large pharmaceutical companies. He currently heads the L&D function for Alkem Laboratories, and was cited as one of the Top 100 Training and Development Minds at the 2018 World HRD Congress. Mr Barkur is adept at using technology in the L&D space and has trained people across the Indian Subcontinent and in Africa. He is passionate about enabling people to excel in their personal and professional lives. Mr Barkur holds an MPharm degree as well as a PGCHRM from XLRI. He is a certified coach (ICF), psychometrician and Accelerated Learning Designer and Facilitator. He also holds certifications in the Dr Jack Phillips ROI model for L&D; as a Facilitator of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; and as a neuro-linguistic practitioner master (American Board of NLP). Mr Barkur is a member of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) and the Association of Talent Development (ATD).

Shashikanth KS (‘Shashi’) is an extremely passionate and committed member of the leadership team at More Retail Limited. He loves travelling and is an avid sports enthusiast. Adept at racket sports like tennis, badminton, squash and table tennis, he has won numerous sports awards over the last few years. Shashi is currently the Head of Human Resources at MRL. His expertise lies in the areas of HR, strategy and operations, including digitisation, strategy planning and execution, balanced scorecard, managing fast-paced growth, and transformation and change management. He has held several senior levels at MRL as well as at Infosys Technologies. Shashi brings with him a deep understanding of the retail, OEM/manufacturing and IT industries. His passion is to build a profitable business that in turn creates high value for shareholders, employees and customers. Shashi is a recipient of the Aditya Birla Group’s Chairman’s Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Andleeb Jain is the Chief People Officer and Global HR Head at JK Cement. An HR professional with 25 years of experience, he holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Punjab University and a diploma in business finance from ICFAI. Mr Jain started his career as a Process Engineer, working with Grasim, PACL, Rallis and CII. He has also been associated with GMR, Lanco and Isolux Corsan. Mr Jain has wide exposure to corporate/group HR functions, systems and processes. He has handled large teams and key HR positions, and has been on the Boards and Executive Councils of several companies where he has worked.

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As the Global Head of Human Resources, Anthony Joseph has responsibility for HR strategy and its implementation for Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) worldwide. In a career spanning over 30 years, he has worked with the DCM Shriram Group, Deloitte Consulting, GE Plastics and Convergys, across the IT, ITeS, engineering and manufacturing sectors. Mr Joseph holds a master’s degree in personnel management and human resources from XLRI, Jamshedpur and a bachelor's degree from St Xavier's College, Calcutta. He is a passionate outdoor sports lover, an ardent (often broken-hearted) Arsenal fan, and runs regularly to keep fit and sane

Manmohan S Kalsy heads the HR function at India’s leading beer company, United Breweries, which is a joint venture with Heineken. Mr Kalsy reports in to the President and Managing Director of UBL and plays a strategic role in setting the people and culture agenda. He has nearly 30 years of experience in the HR function across the consumer goods, technology and telecom sectors. Prior to UB, Mr Kalsy was with Xerox, where he was appointed as a Wholetime Director on the Board in 2011 – something that provided him with valuable governance experience. An MBA from IPM, he has worked across various HR and leadership roles at such companies as DCM, Gillette, Pepsi, Airtel and Vodafone. Mr Kalsy has been certified by INSEAD, DDI, Hogan, Hay and Gallup, and has been associated with many prestigious institutes. He serves on the Advisory Board of Chandigarh University and contributes to the HR fraternity by sharing his thoughts for the function at various HR forums.

Lt Colonel Milan Khurana has been Executive Director – HR, IT and Administration at Prestige Estate Projects since 2008. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University and completed a strategic HR leadership programme run by the Totus HR School. Lt Colonel Khurana had over 20 years of experience in the Indian Army across assignments that included issues around planning, HRD/personnel, training and development, safety and security, and general administration. His current role encompasses talent management and acquisition, leadership development, learning and capability-building, compensation and benefits, organisational effectiveness, and HR operations. He has focussed on fostering an ethical and inclusive culture, and advancing best practices in diversity and engagement. He supports the company’s unprecedented growth by aligning people initiatives with business objectives. He is also responsible for the planning, execution and management of IT infrastructure within the Prestige Group. Lt Colonel Khurana has been responsible for bringing about a digital transformation in HR systems and processes, which have helped redefined the employee experience at Prestige. He also played a key role in establishing a vocational training centre for the company, and in streamlining the Admin vertical, including by setting up a document management centre, and redefining the company’s insurance philosophy. In February 2018, he was recognised as one of ‘100 HR Super Achievers’ in India by the World HRD Congress. Lt Colonel Khurana practises yoga and is an avid golfer.

Shashi Kumar joined Acciona in June 2016 as Director-Human Resources for its energy business in India, where he is responsible for all of its HR, general services and IT activities, including policy and strategy development, employment, compensation, employee relations, performance management, organisational development and succession planning. Prior to this, Mr Kumar worked with GE, AO Smith and Amway as Head – Human Resources, handling 2 Greenfield projects and with end-to-end responsibility for HR, facilities and safety. He comes with 14 years of rich MNC experience. Mr Kumar holds a master’s degree in psychology and an executive MBA from IIM – Calcutta. He also recently completed an executive program in HR management from XLRI.

An astute professional with 26 years of experience in strategy and human resources, Mr Kumar has worked in multiple sectors, including FMCG, pharmaceuticals, textiles and power and cable. He has also worked abroad, in South Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Mr Kumar is a steady HR and business strategist with a fervour for facilitating change for business growth. He is also an expert in the areas of business turnarounds, policy formulation, compensation and benefits, business strategy and learning and skill development. At Polycab, Mr Kumar works towards transforming the work culture, and on organisational development activities. He has participated in various HR forms and conclaves as a speaker, and has successfully facilitated employer branding.

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Vivek Mukherjee heads the people, administration, L&D and IR functions at United Colors of Benetton, India. Mr Mukherjee is a dynamic young HR leader with about 15 years of enriching experience across such industries as finance, IT, ITeS and retail. He has been instrumental in building a great place to work culture, and co-created UCB’s journey into the elite list of Great Places To Work consecutively for 5 years. Prior to working with UCB. Mr Mukherjee believes that success is no longer about providing solutions, but about seeing things from the other person’s perspective and co-creating a path that leads towards a win-win.

‘Impossible is nothing,’ is a deep-rooted belief for ex-national-level badminton player Yasmeen Shaikh, who is now Head – HR at NextGen Healthcare GDC India. In a career spanning more than 17 years, she has gone from exceptional design and delivery to the peaks of leadership and direction. Starting off with IVEGA in the HR function, she moved to Infosys to play the role of BP HR for various verticals. Consistently rated as a top performer, she spearheaded HR for Infosys’ only product unit, Finacle. Ms Shaikh led the HR team, and transformed and delivered many HR programmes for the unit. In recognition of her work, a business-enabling function like HR was awarded the prestigious Annual Excellence Award for the first time ever. Ms Shaikh was one of the select few who worked closely with the senior-most leadership on several centralised special projects and organisation-wide programme roll-outs. Strategic initiatives, including retention programmes, project acceptance drives, utilisation improvisation, etc., not only translated into cost savings, but even generated revenues for the business. Ms Shaikh’s next stint took her to Informatica, where she headed HR for India and was instrumental in driving several culture-building and transformational exercises in a product organisation on its journey to the cloud business. At NextGen, she has, in less than a year, already journeyed through a change management exercise of building HR capabilities and rendering it a truly strategic partner. She has been recognised as the youngest woman member, and the fastest to be nominated to the Board. At the core of Ms Shaikh’s way of functioning is a genuine desire to contribute to the community. In each role, she has championed diversity, inclusion and CSR-related activities for the organisation, scaling each of these areas into full-fledged functional plans. Outside of work, Ms Shaikh is a very hands-on mother to 2 young children. With incredible support from her entrepreneur husband and other family members, she packs in the most each day, balancing a heady mix of work, play, chores and fun. A career, a life, and a balance in every way: each role has been played with heart and soul, an unwavering pursuit of generating value within her chosen field, HR, and with an inspiring and empathetic leadership style.

Mahipal Nair is the Chief HR Officer for Nielsen South Asia and leads the people processes in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. In this role, he oversees leadership and talent development, transformation and change management, in lieu of building a winning team across these markets. Mr Nair joined Nielsen as the HR lead for its Client Service team, and has played various HR roles within the organisation for over a decade. Prior to his current role, he spent 7 years in Dubai leading the HR function for Nielsen in Africa, Middle East and Pakistan, where he developed a vigorous talent bench and exported talent across multiple markets within the company. Earlier, Mr Nair worked for 7 years with Malayala Manorama, one of India’s leading media groups. He started his career with a three-year stint at the Indian Institute of Health Management Research in Jaipur. Mr Nair holds a master’s degree in HR from Allahabad University.

Mukta Nakra is a senior HR professional with diversified experience in all of the business aspects of HR across industries. She has successfully led initiatives that focus on supporting business transformation, driving cultural change, strengthening people leader effectiveness, building the leadership pipeline, and enhancing employee engagement. Ms Nakra currently heads Human Resources and Sustainability at Marks and Spencer Reliance India. As a member of the leadership team, she is focused on ensuring that human capital is a key driver in enabling business success. Prior to Marks and Spencer, Ms Nakra worked with such diverse organisations as Wiley Inc, American Express, Walmart India, ABN Amro and HP.

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Prakash Shimpi holds a bachelor’s degree in science and post-graduate degrees in HR management and in law. He has over 30 years of experience in leadership roles across various functions, including manufacturing, SCM, HR, CSR and ethics. Presently, Mr Shimpi leads the HR function for Lubrizol Corporation in India, and also leads its ethics organisation, CSR and employee services. He has represented the India HR and Ethics functions at various international forums run by Lubrizol, and also had a short assignment at the company’s US headquarters. Mr Shimpi is a qualified coach for managers and leaders. He loves facilitating workshops, delivering guest lectures, and continuous learning. Mr Shimpi believes in positively influencing organisational development, management and leadership, and building value systems. He seeks opportunities to connect with younger generations, both learning from them and investing his time and experience in them. Mr Shimpi has been on the Board of Directors of a non-profit organisation for the last 10 years. At a personal level, being a passionate human being, he aims to make a positive difference to the lives of people he encounters. Mr Shimpi has varied interests, including following current trends in sports, leadership, organisational restructuring, developmental initiatives, finance, social service, and so on.

An HR professional with over 33 years as Head of Human Resources and member of the management teams in different organisations, Rajnarayan Ramakrishna is currently the Senior VP and Chief Human Resources Officer for Titan Company. He comes with strong experience in business and HR strategy development and execution, organisational development and change, performance management, international talent management, leadership development, training and coaching, customer centricity, and employee engagement and relations. Mr Ramakrishna joined Titan in November 2012, having previously worked as HR Director-India at Metro Cash & Carry. He has also held various other positions, including Head of Learning and Development, Head of Talent Management, Management Training and Leadership Development at Metro Cash & Carry International. Prior to that, he was HR Director at SHV Gas India and Country HR Manager at TNT India and Mothercare India. Mr Ramakrishna holds a master’s degree in personnel management and industrial relations from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and a bachelor’s degree from Madras Christian College. His interests include traveling, exploring different cuisines, and listening to a wide variety of music. He is married to Anita, and they have a daughter, Roshni.

Parag Pande is the Managing Director responsible for Accenture’s HR service delivery across the globe. Prior to his current role, Mr Pande was Accenture India’s CHRO, and held various leadership roles in global HR, India operations, and Accenture India’s BPO operations in the Delhi NCR. He has also served as the India and APAC Lead for Accenture's Customer Contact Business Services (ACCBS). During this period, he was instrumental in building differentiated capabilities, growing businesses and stabilising operations. Over the past 28 years Mr Pande has spent a considerable part of his career in roles spanning HR, learning, projects, banking, treasury, financial services and business operations. In addition, he has worked across strategy, planning, business development, mobilisation, Finance and service delivery. This included setting up Greenfield projects, being a Nominee-Director on Boards, turning around troubled businesses and companies, developing and executing strategy, and managing investments of over USD 1 billion. Mr Pande has also been a Rotarian, assisting orphanages and renovating schools in Mumbai’s slums. He has been recognised by The Rotary International as a Paul Harris Fellow.

Kumaar Priyaranjan has over 27 years of experience as a seasoned Human Resource professional. Currently, he serves as Senior Vice President and Head, Human Capital and CSR at Hikal in Navi Mumbai. Previously, Mr Priyaranjan has worked at Indian Hotels (The Taj Group of Hotels), Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Transport Corporation of India and the RPG Group. He has been a social entrepreneur, and dedicated over three years to creating accessible and affordable healthcare to the underprivileged. Having worked in senior positions across several industries in India and abroad, Mr Priyaranjan has a wealth of experience in organisational design and development, leadership development, talent management and succession planning, and competency-based HR systems He has been a guest faculty at many reputed management institutes, has published articles on people productivity, and self-managed teams. Mr Priyaranjan is a spiritual teacher in the Art of Living Foundation and an Executive Coach certified by Gallup. He holds a bachelor’s degree in science from Patna University, a post-graduate diploma in personnel management and industrial relations from the SP College of Communication and Management, New Delhi, an LLB from Osmania University, Hyderabad, and has completed a Strategic Human Resource Management programme from the Ross School of Management, University of Michigan. An ardent social worker, avid reader, traveller and wildlife photographer, Mr Priyaranjan has an interest in cooking.

Lisa Maria Abranches is an engineer and an MBA from Goa Institute of Management. Ms Abranches used to work at Unilver and headed HR for a logistics start-up before becoming a full-time mom to three kids. She is from Goa, loves dancing and speaks fluent Portuguese.

Captain Arun Nayar started his career with the Indian Army in 1993. Following training, he was commissioned as an Officer in the 46th Regiment of the Corps of Air Defence Artillery. His first posting was at Pathankot, and his unit was tasked with the protection of the now-famous Pathankot airfield and ammunition depot. During his tenure with the military, Captain Nayar served at many locations along the international border and the LoC in Kashmir. He was involved in counter- insurgency operations in the Doda district of Jammu & Kashmir. A war veteran, Captain Nayar saw action during Operation Vijay, also known as the Kargil conflict of 1999. He commanded an air defence artillery company of the Indian Army and was involved in a special operation to capture enemy disposition beyond the LoC. Following his Army tenure, Captain Nayar worked for close to a decade with Infosys, where he was instrumental in establishing the Infosys Leadership Institute, Global Education Centre and the Mysore Development Centre. Thereafter, he worked with Software Paradigms International (now Soft Vision International), an IT company based in Atlanta, Georgia for about 2 years as Vice President and Global Head of HRD. Captain Nayar returned to Bangalore as Director – HRD with the French defence multinational, Safran. In this role, he led Safran’s HR, leadership development, training and corporate communication activities in India from 2013 to 2018.

Currently, Captain Nayar works as Senior Vice President for HRD with Swiss Re, a Fortune 500, USD 35 billion reinsurance company that is ranked among the top 2 reinsurance companies in the world. With a bachelor’s degree in commerce from RA Podar College, Mumbai, he also has an MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune.

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Dipak Roy is a successful leader with over 26 years of experience in managing Human Resources across the manufacturing, R&D, IT, consulting and telecommunication industries. He has led transformation projects on major growth initiatives, large scale business consolidations across geographies, and employer branding. Mr Roy has a proven track record in organisation design, employee productivity, start-ups and leadership development through structured talent management programmes across the value chain. Currently as the CHRO of Bharti Infratel, one of the world’s largest telecom infrastructure companies, the focus is on transforming the company, which has been judged ‘Employer of Choice’ for 3 successive years. Mr Roy’s areas of work include strengthening leadership impact at the CXO and business unit levels, structured culture building through high-performance management, employee engagement, diversity, health and safety, and a robust internal talent management system. Prior to joining Bharti Infratel, he led HR operations at Bharti Airtel and IBM.

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Sriram Sadras has over 21 years of work experience spanning organisations such as Infosys, DE Shaw & Co and Arcesium India. As Director and Head Human Capital at Arcesium, he focuses on strategic excellence and operational effectiveness, championing the process of making HR a proactive business partner. Mr Sadras is passionate about workplace productivity and has personally led many initiatives within and outside his span towards this area.

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Sonali De Sarker is a transformational and strategic HR leader with experience in enabling organisations grow and evolve into strategic business entities through their talent strategy, strategic partnering, organisational effectiveness, people practices and change management. She is passionate about building leadership teams that transform the business in a fast-paced and complex market environment in India, the US, APAC and the Middle East.

Nishad Sawant is Global Director - Human Resources at Portescap India, a manufacturer of miniature motors. He holds a bachelor’s degree in production engineering and a master’s degree in labour studies. Mr Sawant’s first job was with Tata Motors as a post-graduate trainee. After spending about four years with the Tata Group, he joined Demag Cranes as Head of Human Resources. Demag was then a 50-person company, but over a period of 5 years grew to 400 people, with a turnover of close to Rs 2 billion. For Mr Sawant, Demag was a great stint, and enabled him to take on larger responsibilities at Portescap, which is part of USD 1.8 billion US MNC, Altra Group. There, he has handled progressively greater responsibilities and is today Portescap’s am Global Human Resource Director.

Ajit Singh has over 20 years of experience in various organisations, and has led HR teams in diverse geographies, including Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas. In his current role as Global Organisation Development and Employee Experience Leader and Country HR Leader at Encore India, he is responsible for the firm’s people development and employee experience initiatives globally, across Encore’s MCM business. Before joining Encore in 2014, Mr Sing held senior leadership roles at TV18, GE, Citi and Kale.

Amar Sinhji is the Executive Director, Human Resources and a member of the Executive Committee of Khaitan & Co. Prior to this, he was Head – Human Resources and a member of the management committee at Tata Capital. There, he was additionally responsible for the L&D, CSR, administration and infrastructure, and safety functions. Mr Sinhji joined Tata Capital at its inception in 2007, and was responsible for setting up its HR function and establishing all of its related policies and practices. He has over 25 years of industry experience, including 15 with the Tata Group, where began his journey in 2000 as General Manager – Human Resources, later becoming Head – Human Resources at two joint ventures with Toronto Dominion Bank, and then Director – Human Resources (Leisure Hotels) at the Indian Hotels Company. Prior to the Tata Group, Mr Sinhji worked with the Essar Group as Joint General Manager – Human Resources from 1995 to 2000. He began his career with Bharat Petroleum. In his various assignments, Mr Sinhji has anchored many initiatives to support the development of strategic HR practices. His focus has always been on aligning the HR function with the business, and his passion lies in setting up and establishing the HR function in new companies, in the formulation of key HR policies, team building and engagement, and in building an organisational culture. Mr Sinhji holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from HL College of Commerce, Ahmedabad and a master’s degree in personnel management from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune

Amit Sharma is Vice President – HR and member of the Country Management Team at the Volvo Group in India. In a career spanning 20 years, he has worked across various HR roles with top-of-the-line organisations in diverse industries, including at Indian Oil, Johnson & Johnson, Philips and TE Connectivity. Mr Sharma has been instrumental in launching some high-impact talent and capability building programmes, employee recognition programmes, and enhancing employee engagement and connect with their organisations. He has facilitated various change management interventions and is a proponent of bringing technology to HR processes while retaining the human touch.

Mohan Singh is the Group Head – Human Resources for Sterling and Wilson, an associate business of Shapoorji Pallonji & Company, India’s leading EPC company with a focus on MEP, renewable energy, T&D, data centres, cogeneration and diesel power generation. Mr Singh became a part of the Sterling & Wilson family in 2006 as Head of HR. His key focus areas are organisational development, talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, talent management, business partnering, and nurturing the leadership pipeline to meet emerging needs of various business verticals. Mr Singh also passionately contributes to people engagement through sports and various other engagement initiatives, and is responsible for driving CSR initiatives across the Sterling & Wilson Group. Prior to this, Mr Singh was associated with the Tata Group. During his stint as Regional HR Head at Tata International, he was responsible for talent acquisition and management, campus hiring, IR and training and development. Mr Singh holds a bachelor’s degree in a commerce and an MBA (HR) from Welingkar Institute, Mumbai. He loves outdoor sports, music and singing. He has been practicing martial arts since his childhood days, and has his own fitness studio where he trains people in martial arts and fitness. Several of his students have represented India in various international events.

Rohit Gupta holds a master’s degree in personnel management and industrial relations and is an alumnus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He is currently Head of HR for Wipro GE Healthcare in South Asia and Director HR at GE BE. Mr Gupta has expertise in conceptualising and executing HR strategy, organisational excellence, talent building and management, employee relations and employee engagement. He has been involved with the incubation of businesses, and specialises in HR delivery in a new business environment and in setting up Greenfield projects. Prior to joining GE, he worked at ITC for 18 years, including as Head HR and Management Committee Member – Printing and Packaging Business. Mr Gupta is an avid traveller, adventure sports enthusiast and amateur photographer, and enjoys reading.

Rohit Thakur is an HR professional with 25 years of experience. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi, and a diploma in personnel management and industrial relations. Previously, Mr Thakur worked as Head of Human Resources at Microsoft India. Prior to that, he spent 11 years at GE in various HR leadership roles across multiple businesses, including energy, capital, engineering, corporate and aviation. He is proud to be one of the employees recognised globally by GE as a growth leader in inclusiveness. Mr Thakur also previously worked with Eicher Tractors, Cadence Design Systems and Bausch & Lomb.

Raghvendra (‘Raghu’) Tripathi is a man who performs and makes everybody and everything else perform, too. Raghu makes his presence felt beneficially wherever he is. Prior to Ramco, he was with Mahindra Satyam (now Tech Mahindra), and was instrumental for its entry into and success in China. In 2007, he became the first Indian to be selected amongst Shanghai’s Top Ten IT Talents. A year later, he received the prestigious Magnolia Award, given by the Shanghai government to foreigners who make a significant contribution to the city’s economic performance, international relations, business environment, management standards and community development. Raghu holds a bachelor’s of technology degree in electronics from IIT-BHU and a master’s degree in management from MDI, Gurgaon. He started his career with a PSU at a time when the telephony revolution had just started in India, and realised that the time had come to dream and realise those dreams. In 1998, he became associated with Satyam Enterprise Solutions, which was at that time a start-up focusing on new telecom companies, and working towards selling services to telco players across Asia. An exciting opportunity came up in 2002, to set up Satyam’s operations in the Middle Kingdom, and he was perhaps the first Indian in Pudong. After spending a decade in China, he relocated to India, and is today part of another exciting journey with Ramco. A performer, he gains strength not just from work experience, but also through the learning he receives from travel and the energy boost he gets when spending quality time with friends and family.

Satheesh Vengoli is currently General Manager – Human Resources and Corporate Affairs at Gharda Chemicals. He has headed the HR function for the past decade, prior to which he was part of the Finance team. With 25 years of experience, including 24 years at Gharda Chemicals, Mr Vengoli holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Calicut and a master’s degree in business administration.

Pranesh Ramakrishna is an HR professional with a career spanning 22 years in various capacities. A major portion of his career has been spent with Wärtsilä, a Finnish MNC in the energy sector that was established in 1834. Previously, Ms Ramakrishna served as the firm’s General Manager, HR for 9 countries in the Middle East. Currently, he is Director, Human Resources for Wärtsilä in India and Sri Lanka. With a degree in management, Mr Ramakrishna’s core specialisations include compensation and benefits, policy interventions, and post-merger HR integration.

Pruthvi Nanjappa is a spirited, results-focused HR professional with 25 years of experience spanning HR consulting, M&A, managing transformation, executive coaching, people management and technical recruiting. Previously, Mr Nanjappa served on the Board of Directors at Ness Technologies India. His keen interest in innovation and entrepreneurship drives engagement with start-ups. Mr Nanjappa is deeply clued-in to emerging trends as an investor, mentor and Director with technology and service start-ups.

Arun Verma is an HR professional with 18 years of experience with both Indian and MNC companies, in start-ups as well as in established organisations. Mr Verma holds a master’s degree in personnel management from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. At Brightstar India, as Head of Human Resources, he is responsible for people management and capability development. Mr Verma has extensive experience managing diverse cultures and various stakeholders in complex matrix organisations. He has proactively managed such ongoing industry challenges as right sizing, organisational redesign, digital transformation and cultural diversity. Prior to joining Brightstar, he worked with Xerox India, McKinsey & Co and Reliance Capital, among others.

Meenakshi Verma has over 19 years of rich HR experience, ranging from manufacturing to services, and in assorted environments and industries. Her goal is to create and cultivate capabilities and culture, and linked them to business profitability via acumen in HR, legal, training and quality. In her current role, Ms Verma supports the design and execution of HR and recruitment strategies to improve team capabilities and create a performance-oriented work culture. She leads special projects across the company that result in employer brand building. Ms Verma handles performance management systems, compensation and benefits management, including insurance and retirement plans. Before joining EDAG, she had led HR roles at Baxter and at Sony India.

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Rita Verma is the Executive Vice President and Head – HR at the DDB Mudra Group. She has close to two decades of experience in the consulting and marketing-communications industry. At the Group, she partners the CEO in driving the organisation’s culture, growth and vision. Ms Verma leads a 15-member team that manages a workforce of 782 people across 7 locations in India. Under her leadership, the Group has won several awards for HR excellence. Her team has been named the Campaign South Asia Talent Management Team of the Year for 2014, 2015 and 2016. It also received an ISO 9001:2015 certification in 2017. Ms Verma is a key member of DDB Worldwide’s People team, a 6-member team comprising of talent heads across the globe who help chart and drive DDB’s global people mandate. She has been at the helm of all major transitions that have taken place at the Group over the last decade, and helped guide the organisation from being an Indian agency to becoming a part of the Omnicom Group, catalysing a change in the company culture and processes to align with a global way of working. Over the last eighteen months, Ms Verma has helped support the senior leadership and has kept the organisation rock-steady through two leadership transitions, holding attrition rates stable in an industry with traditionally high attrition rates. With millennials now comprising 70% of the Group’s workforce, she has also played a key role in transforming the organisational culture into one that is young, egalitarian and dynamic. She has also helped drive its diversity and inclusivity agenda. Ms Verma’s goal for the coming year is to focus on creating a physically and mentally healthy workforce that can drive the organisation to even greater heights. A certified Life Coach, she bring empathy and humanity (two of the Group’s driving forces when it comes to talent management) in her stewardship of the organisation and its people.

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Tanvi Choksi is responsible for leading the people strategy for JLL India. With a strong team of over 90 HR professionals, she partners with the India Leadership Council of Jones Lang LaSalle to deliver the organisation’s growth and sustain its leadership position in the industry through progressive talent management practices. Ms Choksi’s areas of expertise include organisational design and development, talent management, leadership development, M&A and divestitures, and HR transformation. She brings with her over 14 years of work experience in diverse industries, ranging from automotive, agriculture and healthcare, to FMCG and now to real estate and professional services. Ms Choksi holds an MBA (HR) from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She completed her bachelor’s degree in management studies from the SIES College of Commerce & Economics, with a specialisation in Finance.

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Kevin Freitas is a Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary who chose to make a career in Human Resources. He worked with consulting firms like Hewitt Associates and the HayGroup before choosing to work with start0ups like Flipkart, InMobi and Dream11. Mr Freitas is fond of reading and dotes on his three kids.

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