CII National
HR Excellence Award
2023-24

• • CII (WR) Sub-Committee on IR & Diversity : Chairman
• • CII National Committee on Leadership & HR : Member
• • CII National Task Force on Affirmative Action : Member
• • CII HR & IR Panel, Pune : Mentor, Ex-Convener
• • CII HR Excellence National Award Competition : Jury Chair
• • CII Winner of ‘Prize for Leadership in HR Excellence (600+ score) four times in a row
• • CII HR Excellence : Co-Authored OPEL (Excellence Model 2019)
• • Premier B-Schools : Member- Academic Councils
• • Institute Of Industrial Engg. (IIIE) Pune: Ex-President
• • Poona Productivity and Development Council (PDPC) : Council Member
• • Kincentirc's National Benchmark on Employee Engagement Score
• • Dun & Bradstreet : Awards on R&R and L&D
• • Doctorate (PhD) in Productivity & Organization Culture
• • Led HR of Steel, Dairy, Electronics, Chemicals, Engineering and IT sectors over 35 years

Ex-CEO of Raymond Lifestyle Businesses for 7 years (2013-2020) - Responsible for Textile, Apparel and Retail businesses. Executive board member of Raymond Apparel limited from 2013-2020

Besides the last 7-years in Textiles industry, 2 decades of prior work experience with 10-years in FMCG and 10-years in Telecom. Worked Hindustan Unilever, Nokia and Reliance in diverse functional and business leadership capacities across all the organizations, in India, Asia Pacific and Globally. Led some of the top Indian and Global brands – Vim, Surf, Rin, Sunlight, Nokia, Reliance amongst others; and 3 Global IPR's in Brand & Marketing operations.

Business and brand leadership experience ranging across consumer goods to service industry – project set-up, operation scale-up and managing large established brands and businesses. Led teams of diverse skill sets, experience, scale, structures, locations, cultures and nationalities.

Graduated from IIT BHU (Varanasi) and MBA from Sydenham Institute of Management, Mumbai. Avid enthusiast of technology and gadgets, a die-hard cricket aficionado and enjoy painting.

He is the recipient of Energy Administrator of the Year Award from Association of Energy Engineers, USA : India, Kolkata Chapter.

He is the Chairman of National Safety Council - West Bengal Chapter, Former President - Calcutta Management Association for 2015-16 and 2016-17, President (Elect) & Chairman, Energy & Environment Committee - Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Chairman - (HR & IR Committee) - CII (ER), Member of National HR & IR Committee – CII. Presently he is serving as Vice Chairman of IIEST Alumni Cell and Co-Chairman of Energy Committee of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Mr. Ray served The Institution of Engineers (India) in various capacity. He was Member of National Council & West Bengal Committee for several years, served as its Honorary Secretary West Bengal Center. He was Convenor & Chairman of Electrical Engineering Divisional Subcommittee.

Prior to this, Samik was Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer for PepsiCo India Region. He started his 15 year tenure in PepsiCo as HR Director for their Snacks business in India during a crucial growth phase of the business in the early 2000’s. In 2005 he was transferred to Hong Kong as the HR & Organisation Capability Director for Asia Region and thereafter moved to Bangkok, Thailand as HR Director for PepsiCo’s South East Asia Business. He came back to India in mid-2011 as Chief People Officer of PepsiCo India and led significant organization design and transformation work for the business. His career as an HR Professional, encompasses 33 plus years of experience in Strategic Business Partnership, Change Management, Employee Relations, Organisation Design, Diversity & Inclusion and Leadership Development. He has been a member of the Asia Pacific Talent Development and Organizational Effectiveness Council of the Conference Board.

A Post Graduate in Human Resources from XLRI Jamshedpur, Samik started his career with VIP Industries Limited as a Management Trainee. He joined Unilever India in 1993 as an HR Generalist and assumed positions of increasing responsibility during his 8 year stint with them. He is a sports enthusiast and is fond of hiking, travelling, swimming and playing cricket and badminton. He lives in Mumbai with his wife Melina, twins Sunoy and Mrithika and their dog Dannie.

Satya is a seasoned professional with over 24 years of work experience in consulting space. He has worked with some of world’s best consulting organizations helping them grow business. He heads the Business Services division at Grant Thornton Bharat, focusing on transforming people and client experiences through people engagement and technology interventions. He specializes in improving processes to bring in efficiencies.

Satya is an ICF and EMCC certified Executive Coach, who likes to work with leaders to learn from them while helping them achieve their full potential.

In his personal time, he loves to travel to the mountains, cook, sing light Indian music, spend his time with his family and his dog Coco.

Under Gopinath’s leadership, Apraava Energy set out on its transformational journey with the creation of a new corporate brand identity and refreshed Purpose, Vision, Mission, and Values. As a member of the Executive Committee, his role at the firm entails building a strong corporate and employer brand and leveraging the power of people and communities, aligned with its purpose and values.

In addition to embedding sustainability as an integral part of work culture at Apraava Energy, he is a CII-certified Sustainability Assessor. He is also an assessor for the CII-EXIM Bank Award for Business Excellence and CII National HR Excellence Awards for over a decade. As a commitment to advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the workplace, Apraava Energy is one of the signatories to the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP), an initiative of the United Nations Global Compact and UN Women. Besides, health and wellbeing is a strategic pillar in the people strategy at Apraava.

Gopinath is actively involved in volunteering and several pro bono initiatives including with the Whiteboard, Mumbai Chapter where he supports NGOs with strategic advisory in organizational issues, along with a panel of senior industry experts. Promoting a strong culture of volunteering and community engagement at Apraava is a priority.

Prior to joining Apraava Energy, Gopinath held leadership roles at Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd., Hindustan Unilever Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporate Limited.

Gopinath is an alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur and St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and is also trained in Strategic HR from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

• • Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD)
• • All India Management Association (AIMA)
• • SAP SuccessFactors CHRO Advisory Board
• • Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), National Committee on Leadership & HR
• • IIM Trichy
• • School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL) etc.

Mr. Yaswant Kumar Pandey is a Graduate in Science from Utkal University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from XISS, Ranchi. He has 32 years of rich experience with Tata Steel in various verticals of HRM. He is also a certified assessor under Thomas Profile Assessment and Belbin.

During his tenure in Tata Steel, he has worked in the HRM department across various locations and different business verticals like, Raw Materials (Iron Ore, Coal & Chrome) & Steel Division. He was also given the responsibility to handle the closure of Tata Steel Group Company – Tayo Rolls Ltd. and had the experience in dealing with NCLT & HC on various labour matters.

Currently he is looking after HRM function at Tata Steel Kalinganagar, Jajpur, Odisha and is responsible for approx. 4200 on roll employees (Officers & Non officers) and approx. 12000 contract employees. Over the years, he has rich experience of handling various unions, contract workforce and looking after workforce planning, capability development, talent acquisition & management, performance management system and employee engagement initiatives. Post approval of 3 shift deployment of female employees in Mines by Govt. of India and Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS), Mr. Pandey was instrumental in inducting female employees (Heavy Earth Moving Machines Operators) in all the three shifts at Noamundi Iron Ore Mine.

Dr. K. Suresh An HR Professional with more than 28 years of live-wire experience in Business HR, Industrial Relations, Strategic Management, Quality Management System, Business Excellence, Dr. K. Suresh Kumar believes that professional commitment and contributions can be enriched through continuous learning.

Having done Post-Graduate Programs in Personnel Management, HRM, Training & Development, he has acquired Doctorate (PhD) in Management from University of Kerala. The thesis subject was “Career Growth and Success of Managerial Professionals”.

Dr. Suresh Kumar is having professional experience with topnotch companies in India including Thapar, Somani, Nicholas Piramal, Dalmia and Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. Besides, he possesses sound experience in IT & ITES companies. As a keen enthusiast in professional training and development activities, he has been on board with various Indian Universities and Public-Private Sector Organizations to handle HR Programs. He has published more than 27 articles in various Management Journals apart from authoring the widely acclaimed management bestseller “HR Can Win” in collaboration with Excel Books, New Delhi.

His latest book on Employee Relations titled “Decoding Industrial Relations towards Business-People Synergy It is published by Partridge International LLC. He has propounded a new software to map the life skill distribution of children at their formative age so as to carve out potential leadership pipeline for the development of the nation. Please visit . WWW.5gsmarrtlife.com

He has also won “Young Manager’s Trophy” for outstanding contribution towards modern HR Practices from NIPM. Under his leadership Aurobindo Pharma has received HR Excellence award from cPHI India forum for the year 2016 & 17 and BM Munjal Award for Business Excellence through People Development in 2019 from former President of India Sri Pranab Mukherjee . Aurobindo has also bagged coveted HR Excellence Award from FTACCI and Economic Times Human Capital award for HR-Business partnership .

Deepak Deshpande is a Business Excellence (BE) professional with subject matter expertise (SME) in People Management. Deepak works closely with Hospitality, Airlines & Travel, Automotive, ITES, Tata Steel Subsidiaries, Aero Space and Defence sectors and with Titan as Relationship Manager. He also is SME for HR Practices at Tata Business Excellence Group (TBExG), a role in which he integrates Business Excellence with People Practices. Deepak’s career spans over 29+ years in HR and BE. He has been a thought leader on people dimensions and has headed HR in senior leadership roles, enabling business delivery with direct responsibilities for HR across geographies.

At TBExG, Deepak plays the role of a trusted advisor by providing BE consulting to companies. He works closely with them on their BE plans in helping them achieve “World Class Performance” and he also monitors the progress of HR in the TBEM Assessment process within the group. He is certified to study and assess organisation culture by Positive Culture Academy (on using Org Culture Assessment Instrument) he has lead Culture Deep Dives for various Tata Companies. He is a certified in CII-HR

Excellence & Customer Obsession framework as Senior Assessor and is an active member of CII- Excellence of Leadership.

Deepak facilitates BE (Assessor) and Practitioners workshops for TBEM external assessors and business champions. He facilitates sessions on Business Excellence Assessor Programmes (BEAP), Subject Matter Expert Assessor Programme (SMEAP), Experienced Assessors Programmes (EAP) and SME modules such as HR Strategy and PMS. He is also responsible for TNF (Tata Networking Forum) North and South as a TBExG coordinator.

Before joining TBExG in 2012, Deepak was with Tata Chemicals Limited as Head – HR (CPB and New Businesses), where he was responsible for several key HR processes and headed HR for Innovation Centre, Corporate Shared Services and a few other businesses. Prior to joining the Tata group, he has held leadership positions in companies like Century Communications, IMRB International (Hindustan Thompson Associates), Fiat India and Force Motors.

Deepak holds a master’s degree in Management from Pune University and has completed Mechanical Engineering from VIT Pune, Pune University. Deepak is a PCC (Professional Certified Coach- from ICF) He also holds a diploma in Training and Development from the Ministry of HR in India. Deepak is a Certified Quality Improvement Associate (ASQ), a Certified Manager of Quality and Organisational Excellence (ASQ), Certified Level 3 Qualitist (Quimpro) and certified on OCAI Culture specialist from Positive Culture Academy . Deepak is also certified in MBTI, EMT and Belbin Team roles he is on panel of IIT Powai as a Mentor coach for their students. He is associated with IAF (International Association of Facilitators) and his passion is Facilitation. He is a TEDx Speaker.

Deepak likes to stay fit by going to the gym regularly and is actively involved in a variety of sports and outdoor activities such as badminton, swimming, and trekking. He is a competitive swimmer and loves diving. He is a certified Scuba Diver (PADI) and is a core member of Tata Sports Club (Badminton Committee) He enjoys reading and is fluent in four languages: English, Hindi, Marathi and Kannada. He is based out of Mumbai.

ddeshpande@tata.com 9223368166