Mr. Sanjay Behl, Chairman of CII’s Leadership & HR National Committee 2021-22, Co-founder of Nextqore Inc. A US Delaware Based Company. CEO of Nextqore Private Limited - 100% subsidiary of Nextqore Inc. EVP Global Marketing, Nextqore Inc.

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.

Executive Vice President & Head – Corporate Human Resources (CHRO), Larsen & Toubro Limited, an Indian Multi-national Conglomerate with diversified interests in infrastructure, heavy engineering, manufacturing, IT, technology, and financial services with operations across 30+ countries worldwide.

A highly result-oriented, HR professional with 33 years of experience in successfully planning, designing, implementing, and managing various strategic HR Initiatives. He has been the Head of HR for various businesses, independent companies, and JVs within L&T Group, including leadership roles in the Middle East & Africa Region. He has led various transformational initiatives within the organization including digital transformation. He has been an established thought leader and widely acclaimed speaker in various national and international conferences and forums.

On the academic front, he has 3 Master’s degree (Economics, Labor Studies & Human Resource Management). He has also earned a degree in Law (LLB) and a doctorate in leadership from the University of Madras.

Dr. C. Jayakumar has various national and international certifications and accreditations in the Psychometric and behavioral sciences domain. He is also certified in Organizational Development from the NTL Institute of Advanced Behavioral Sciences, USA.

Dr. C. Jayakumar has made an immense contribution in the Human Resources arena over the years. He presides on the boards of esteemed professional bodies such as:
• Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD)
• All India Management Association (AIMA)
• SAP SuccessFactors CHRO Advisory Board
• Advisory Board Member for the ReThink HR Conclave 2022 by Sapphire Connect

and in the Board of Studies of prestigious educational institutions such as:
• IIM Trichy
• Madras School of Social Work
• University of Madras, Department of Labour Management
• School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL)
• Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi
• Chandigarh University
• Kalinga (KIIT) University, Bhubaneshwar

Dr. Jayakumar has been bestowed with HR Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 by Economic Times and People Business.

ETHRWorld recognized him among the top 50 HR Thought leaders of 2022 acknowledging his exceptional work done in HR leadership.

He is a life member of NIPM, NHRDN & ISTD.

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 .

Mahendra Kumar K is an HR Professional with over 25 years of experience across all areas of Human resources with special interest for Learning & Development. He currently heads Employee Relations & Ben Admin function for the Western region in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. His past role includes being head of Bharat Petroleum Learning Centre. He is credited with launching various innovative HR and learning initiatives within BPCL. He is a certified coach and senior certified professional of SHRM. His academic qualifications include Graduate in Physics from Loyola College, Chennai and Masters in Management from TSM, Madurai.

Girish Menon is the HR head at Swiggy, India’s largest food ordering and delivery platform. With close to 2 decades of HR experience across large Financial MNCs(Citigroup,Temasek group&HSBC), retail and e-commerce startups(Flipkart), he is responsible for aligning people practices to drive profitability andgrowth at Swiggy.

Prior to Swiggy, Girish was with Flipkart where he led HR for the First Mile vertical of Supply Chain,designing and executing business goals through people practices. His expertise lies in setting up HR processes for scale in start-ups, managing stakeholders in matrix organizations, driving key people practices, and Organizational Development interventions across multiple locations and cross section of employees with a hands-on understanding of employment laws

Girish holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and Law, and PGDBM in Human Resources from Xavier’s Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship and is an Executive coach from Neuroleadership Institute

M Lakshmanan is Chief Human Resources Officer of L&T Technology Services. He heads the Global Human Resources Function for L&T Technology Services. M Lakshmanan has over 25 years of work experience. Lakshmanan started his career in the Central Government / Public Sector Service and moved to IT Industry 2 decades ago. Lakshmanan worked for companies viz. Hexaware, Mphasis and Cap Gemini until 2012. During his career in IT industry, he held Global responsibilities in Human Resources function at Mphasis and Cap Gemini (formerly Patni Computers Limited). Lakshmanan joined Larsen & Toubro in January 2013.

Lakshmanan is HR Leader and a Global Talent Management professional with extensive experience in Compensation and Benefits, Talent Assessments, Talent Acquisition, M&As, Immigration, Global Mobility, Enterprise Process improvements and operations.

Lakshmanan is an active member of NHRDN and was the President of NHRDN, Mumbai Chapter (2017-19) and was the General Secretary of NHRDN, Mumbai Chapter (2015-17). Lakshmanan was also the President and Secretary of HR Infotech Association in the years 2008-10. Lakshmanan is a regular speaker in various forum and also guest lectures at leading Management Institutes in Mumbai.

Lakshmanan is a Post Graduate specialized in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations and is a Certified OD practioner from National Training Laboratory, USA.

Lakshmanan is passionate about the Skill India mission and supports an NGO working the field of Education for under priviledged children in India.

Lakshmanan is married and his spouse is a HR Professional too. His son is MBA from IIM, Raipur and employed with ICICI Bank.

A strategic HR leader with over thirty years of transformation experience in Oil, Steel, Telecom, Financial Services and Aviation sectors.

A proven proficiency in managing all stake-holders interest and striking the balance in optimum utilization of Human Capital, institutionalizing Business Partnering.

An erstwhile Ethics Counsellor for the Tata Group; an advocate for the strength of diversity, equity and inclusion of the human capital. Co-founder of the Leadership Council for Industry-Academia interface between IIM-Bangalore and BIAL. Member of Aviation Skill Council Sub-Committee.

Chief Human Resource Officer and Strategy Group member for BIAL since 2014 and Director on the Board of Kempegowda International Airport Foundation.

Vikram Bector is the President and Chief Human Resources Officer for the Piramal Group. He holds an MBA degree in Marketing & Finance and is also certified as an Associate Certified Coach (ACC – International Coach Federation), since 2007.

Vikram comes with 27 years of professional experience across diverse sectors like IT, Consulting, Automotive and Healthcare. He has previously worked with big global Indian conglomerates and MNCs like – Cipla, Reliance Industries Limited, Tata Motors, Deloitte, Satyam Computers and Aditya Birla Group. He has presented papers at the ASTD International Conference and Exposition in San Diego and also been awarded as the best speaker at the Global Learning Summit at Singapore in 2013.
In addition to core HR practices, he has expertise in Mergers & Acquisitions and leading change initiatives across different cultures in geographies such as Brazil, United States, China, Japan and the Middle East. He has worked on building world class e-enabled practices in the areas of Talent Acquisition, Leadership development, Succession planning, managing high potentials, Employee Engagement, Learning and Organizational Development. He has steered initiatives in organizations to enhance the employer brand and become an employer of choice

Yashwant Mahadik (Yash) is a seasoned global HR professional with over 30 years of experience across industries/sectors and geographies in top-class companies viz. Crompton Greaves, Colgate Palmolive, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Royal Philips, Sun Pharma and currently is the Global CHRO of Lupin and all its subsidiary companies. He 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 transformation programs and initiatives in J&J and Philips 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 conceptualising and executing global strategic initiatives in areas of Human Resource Management.

He has a 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 charitable cause.

Rajesh Padmanabhan, is an accomplished corporate executive, board advisor, master coach & a start-up Entrepreneur. He brings more than 30 years of global diversified business, operating & consulting experience across industries in IT Services, Manufacturing, Hospitality, Mining & Metals, Banking & Infrastructure. He has successful track record of driving digital transformation, building boards, Excos and top teams along with driving effectiveness, running large human resources function globally with experience in corporate banking as business head & driving strategy.

Career History
Rajesh is an influential Senior Business Transformation leader and a matrix global professional who has done seven roles in seven varied industries, to his credit. Started his career handling systems on mainframes he went on to become a corporate banker, run P&L’s, execute Corporate Strategy, do new institutional business of SME (Small & Medium Enterprises), SAP Functional, Business Consulting & Global HR. He built convergence between Business & People keeping Technology at the forefront. He has been in global roles for over 3 decades and managed diverse cross-cultured teams across North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, SE Asia & APAC.

He is passionate about digital acceleration, leadership development, people & culture change & skills building holistically for business value & excellence creation in his various roles with ICICI Group, Essel Propack as Global CHRO, The Oberoi Group as EVP, Group HR & OCLD (Oberoi Centre for Learning & Development), EVP & Global CHRO at I-Gate , Group CVP, Business Consulting & CHRO Capgemini, Group CHRO for Vedanta Resources Plc and Welspun Group as Director & Group CHRO.

He has created customer – centric global business models across geographies with world class capabilities, building organisational excellence & running complex yet efficient structures to create enterprise value.

He now runs a new age business transformation lab, Talavvy (www.talavvy.com) as CEO using research, simulation, prototyping, validation & deep testing in the areas of digital acceleration, people & culture change, marketing & communication, and leadership services.

He is on the board of Cornerstone International Group and is a Business Mentor with The Exco Group (formerly Merryck & Company, Americas). He is also on the National Board of CII Leadership & HR & is appointed as the Chairman of the CII HR Incubation Centre (CHIC).

Personal
Rajesh is a Double Masters in Human Resource & Finance from the University of Mumbai. He won an UN Award for building world class diversity & inclusive practices at Capgemini. His hobbies include Cricket, Fitness, Motorcycles, Travelling & Research.

Sudhanshu Vats is the Deputy Managing Director at Pidilite Industries Limited. He has a career spanning 30 years across the FMCG and Media sectors with a track record of propelling significant business growth and creating long-term value for all stakeholders of the Company. He has always created an inclusive, open and learning culture for employees.

Prior to joining Pidilite, Sudhanshu Vats was the Managing Director and CEO at EPL Limited. Under his leadership the company grew in double digits in FY 21 despite Covid19 headwinds. His clearly articulated strategy of "Leading the Pack" with Sustainability at its core and well-defined 5 Must Win Battles will help EPL maintain its strong run in the years ahead.

Prior to EPL, he spent eight years as the MD and Group CEO of Viacom18 Media Private Ltd. Under Sudhanshu’s leadership Viacom18 grew from 6 to 54 channel network across more than 80 countries, turned around Filmed Entertainment business with content led cinema and added a strong Digital business that propelled it to a stupendous 4x growth in top line and consistent positive PAT delivery in this period. By building a strong portfolio of Direct-to-Consumer Digital offerings under VOOT brand and strengthening Data Science & Analytics capability, he has future proofed the media company that is admired for its culture, quality of talent and progressive people policies.

Prior to Viacom18, he spent about 20 years at Unilever in India in sales, marketing, and general management roles. His last role in Unilever was VP Laundry (South Asia) and Global VP - Radiant brand. He made Radiant the fastest growing laundry brand in the world with over Euro 500 M turnover and grew South Asia Laundry business by 20%+ crossing the Euro 1 B milestone. As Head Soaps and Detergents, he aggressively grew share, revenue, and profitability for HUL in India. During his long tenure at Unilever, he shaped many popular household brands, most notably Lipton, Vim, Wheel, Surf, Rin, Lifebuoy and Lux.

During 2004-2005, Sudhanshu worked with BP in India as VP Marketing and successfully re-launched the Castrol Master brand.

He has been the Chairman of the National Media and Entertainment Committee of CII, Vice President of Indian Broadcasting Foundation and Director at Broadcast Audience Research Council. He is on the Global Advisory Board of the Columbia University, New York. He is also on the advisory board of several NGOs.

Sudhanshu is an inspirational leader and mentors a lot of young CXOs, many of whom started their career with him. He is a Sub 4 hour marathon runner.

Preemita is a seasoned HR Leader with close to two decades of rich and diverse experience of leading HR in BFSI, IT and Consulting sectors.

She has assisted businesses in organization design and restructuring, integration of HR practices in M&A situations, driving Enterprise HR agenda in Group Businesses, defining and executing an effective Talent Strategy, strengthening Employer Brand and designing progressive HR policies.

Preemita has the experience in managing people and business objectives and have a successful track record of delivering results. She has led HR function in domestic as well as global setting, managing diverse set of stakeholders. She has worked extensively on HR Transformation; enhancing performance management and compensation framework for greater effectiveness; unleashing productivity and nurturing employee engagement and capability; building leadership and succession planning; enabling a learning culture and driving transformation through effective use of HR technology.

She has also successfully delivered assignments outside the HR Function.

Amit Gupta, General Manager (Skill & Organisation Development), Corporate Office, IndianOil Corporation Limited

> 22 years in IOCL, out of which last seven years in Human Resource Development.
> Prior to mid-career shift in HR, handled LPG and Retail sales.

Present Assignment:
> Head of Skill and Organisation Development for the Corporation
> Managing Change in people practices
> Handling new initiatives for talent management with emphasis on analytics
> Strengthening Industry-Academia alliance
> Skill development
> Learning and Development

Instrumental in carving a Succession Planning Framework, Talent Vision, a multi-modal e- Learning platform in organization and a Corporate Mentoring Framework.

For more..

Currently heading the Learning & Development vertical of POWERGRID which includes responsibilities of conceiving and driving learning strategies in the organization. The current profile entails competency mapping, identifying skills & competency gaps and rolling out learning offerings that include class room trainings, virtual class rooms, e-courses, instructive and walk through videos, sponsorship to long and short-terms courses offered by premier institutions of the country and abroad. We also conduct Assessment Development Centres for senior executives to identify key leaders for critical leadership positions in the company and work out Individual Development Plans for each executive.

Prior to my current role, I was heading the HR Vertical of two biggest Regions of POWERGRID for over 12 years. The job profile included all gamut of HR including Recruitment, Manpower Planning & Budgeting, Employee Benefits and Welfare, Performance Management, Administration & Logistics Management, Corporate Communications and Industrial Relations.

Special Interests & Achievements
A keen sportsman having represented Jammu & Kashmir State in veteran nationals in Table Tennis. Has also been the captain of POWERGRID’s Table Tennis team for over 15 years and has the distinction of winning Gold Medal for POWERGRID in the Inter-CPSU TT Championships for 10 successive years.

A regular speaker in church gathering on various theological and social issues. Regularly delivers sermons and talks in various forums and also a regular in-house faculty for various management subjects including leadership

A dynamic professional with 33 plus years of rich experience in managing HR, IR, EHS & Community Development activities with key focus on top line profitability & optimal utilization of resources and hands on experience in implementation of HR policies & system.

> Future proofing organizations through succession planning and talent building, talent review, knowledge management & creating employer branding.

> Plan, Develop and implement strategy for HR Management and development, to achieve short, medium & long term business plans.

> Long term wage settlement with multiple unions including optimization of production and productivity. Proficiency in handling Employee Engagement Survey, Dip stick survey, Employee Retention, Talent Management, > Talent Acquisition & Grievance Redressal.

> Proficiency in handling Legal Matters, Event Management, Liaison with Govt. Authorities & External Agencies.

> Past chairman of NIPM-North Karnataka Chapter.

> Life member of National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM)

> Life Member of Kannada Sahitya Parishath

> Chairman–Institute Management Committee (IMC), Govt. ITI, Hanamasagar, Koppal Dist.

> Member- Industry Advisory Board, Ballari Institute of Technology & Management, Ballari.

> Convener – BKRISE (Ballari – Koppal Regional Industrial Safety Day Events)

> Joint Secretary of Koppal Industries Association

> Life Member of Indian Society for Training & Development.

> Member of Rotary Club, Hospet

> Certified CII – National HR Excellence Assessor.

> Received Great Manager Award -2021, Selected in Top 250 Great Managers over 5000 applicants.

Gopinath Govindan is a member of the Executive Committee of Apraava Energy and provides oversight and direction to the HR, Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Communications functions for Apraava Energy.

Over the last three decades, Gopinath has been associated with several professional bodies and academic institutions. He is a Senior Assessor associated with the CII National HR Excellence Awards for the last decade. He is also an assessor for the CII-EXIM Bank Award for Business Excellence and a Sustainability Assessor. As a leading member of the Whiteboard initiative, he supports NGOs with strategic advisory in organization management, along with other senior industry experts.

Prior to his stint with Apraava Energy, he has held leadership roles in Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd., Hindustan Unilever Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporate Limited.

Gopinath is an alumnus of S. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and XLRI Jamshedpur. He is trained in Strategic HR from Stanford GSB and is also an alumnus of the CSC Leaders Program.

Swati is a seasoned human resource professional with keen interest in designing experiences enabling interpersonal exploration and organizational contexts.

She currently heads the Talent Management and Diversity & Inclusion initiatives at Blue Star Ltd.

Previously she has worked with Tata Group HR, Saint-Gobain, Larsen & Toubro and IIM Ahmedabad - getting a perfect blend of academia-corporate experience that provides a fine blend of organizational experience and academics rigor primarily in Talent Management practices, capability building, blended and digital learning, employee engagement & well-being, organizational research & Development, values and ethics, and organizational policies and practices.

She has been a CII HR Excellence Assessor since 2017.

Rajesh has over 30 years of diverse experience across Office Automation, Electrical, Renewable Energy, Financial Services, and Infrastructure Industries. He has diverse function experience across Technical Services, Service Sales, Quality, Business Excellence, Strategy and Planning, Finance, HR, and CSR.

An MBA (HR) and electronics engineer, Rajesh has worked with big MNC’s such as Xerox and Eaton Corporation, Indian MNCs such as Suzlon Energy, Welspun, and a prominent Financial Services and Infrastructure group called Kanoria Foundation.

He is an experienced examiner of Malcolm Baldridge Business Excellence Model and CII HR Excellence Model. He is also a trainer on varied subjects such as Six Sigma, Balanced Score Card; Competency-based Assessment, and Leadership Development

Mohan Vamshi is HR Business Partner for R&D at Bajaj Auto. He also heads the talent functions & HR Tech at Bajaj. Prior to this, he worked for Texas Instruments and Murugappa Group. In 2004, he graduated from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Deepak Deshpande is a Business Excellence (BE) professional with subject matter expertise (SME) in People Management (HR). Deepak works closely with Hospitality, Travel, ITES, Tata Steel Subsidiary Companies, Aero Space and Defence sectors and Titan as Relationship Manager for TBExG. He also is SME for HR Practices and Culture Interventions 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. He is also a certified Coach and a Facilitator.

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 also leads Culture Deep Dives. He is a certified in CII-HR Excellence & Customer Obsession framework as Senior Assessor and has done multiple assessments as Senior Leader. He was also member of the HR core team which revised the CII HR Excellence framework, is an active member of CII-Excellence of Leadership.

Deepak Facilitates Advanced Programmes for Leaders and 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 (Consumer Product Business 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 is a Mechanical Engineering from VIT Pune, Pune University.