India's 100 Great People Managers 2021 : Forbes India Magazine

Abhishek Mandal brings an experience of over 20+ years in consumer products and, more recently, in real estate. He has displayed strong leadership in spearheading change initiatives in multiple assignments spanning over two decades.

At Lodha, India's largest real estate company, he has made a significant impact in growing the luxury segment and built across geographies winning teams that are empowered to bring things to life from blueprint to execution.

According to his team, he has an eye for spotting talent and invests time to groom individuals and help them succeed. His people management policy is to empower, enable, engage and empathise, and help create more leaders in the system.

Aditya Arora, or Adi as he is fondly addressed, is the chief executive officer of Teleperformance in India. He has an enterprising career of over 25 years, with the last two decades in the BPO industry.

Arora has set up several large businesses with cross-cultural teams across multiple verticals, bringing in strong deployment practices and agile leadership in business development and planning, transformational practices, operational excellence, change and risk management, including governance and regulatory compliances.

He has been recognised by Indian Achievers' World Excellence Forum for his exemplary leadership and contribution towards driving innovation and advancement in the industry, has been featured as an 'Influential Leader of New India' 2021, and was awarded as the 'Business Leader of the Year' by a leading financial news channel in 2020 for his leadership skills and driving digital integrated business services.

With vast experience under his belt, Alvin Dsilva has successfully groomed his team members at DCB Bank. His coaching and mentoring skills ensure his team remains engaged, inspired and motivated to take additional responsibilities, and goes the extra mile to keep a customer-centric approach while fulfilling service delivery.

He always finds time to contribute towards social causes and conducts programmes on motivational talks for the community.

Amit Kumar Sahoo is a thought leader whose expertise spans across talent management, leadership development and employee engagement, with a focus on the IT and services industry. He believes in influencing people by providing purpose, direction and motivation.

He's inspired by his desire to innovate and tries to adapt it to his work with new ideas. He has turned his passion into his profession, enabling the creation of the best possible workplace for his colleagues.

Amit Ramani is the founder and CEO of Awfis, the largest network of co-working centres in India. He started the company with the vision of revolutionising the office space delivery ecosystem in India through technology.

He has over 18 years of experience in areas of master planning, strategic planning, design management, workplace and business process improvement, Six-Sigma based strategies and facility planning.

His strong background has allowed him to provide innovative and complex project services to multinational corporations. He is a member of RICS, NASSCOM & CoreNet serving on the board for the latter's Charlotte Chapter.

Amit Sahni is an experienced vice president with a history of working in the machinery industry, skilled in negotiation, business planning, operations management, sales, and sales operations. He is a people's manager who believes in being friends with the team. In return, the team considers him to be a part of their family. His ability to nurture and inspire, and his unique practices towards the goal, make him a great people manager.

Amitabh Ray is a CEO, a passionate leader, a futurist, an author, a prolific blogger, a remarkable speaker and has been labelled as the Most Promising Business Leader of Asia 2020-21 by a leading business daily. But none of these quite describe him. Ray is the undisputed chief motivational officer of the company.

He skillfully balances stakeholder interests and his passion for caring for people. The art of conflict management, and knowing how to coalesce diverse views to achieve shared objectives for the larger good of the organisation, are his native skills.

Ray's long career has been an exciting journey of building teams, strategising, leading and executing the transformation journeys of three centurion organisations: PwC, IBM and currently Ericsson.

Andy Ponneri is senior vice president and a business leader for Synchrony India. Synchrony is a premier consumer financial services company spanning technology, analytics, finance, and operations, and has its core operations in India. Under Andy's leadership, Synchrony achieved GPTW Rank #5 in India and Top 10 in diversity, equity, and inclusion in 2021.

A seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience, Andy has grown his career by taking on critical roles and broadening experiences while continuing to deliver a strong performance. He believes Synchrony's inclusive culture and strong values help pave the way for employees, customers, and partners to be successful.

Known for his caring leadership style, Andy has dynamically merged his passion for process and people management to empower Synchrony employees. His thorough expertise in operations, Six Sigma and strategy has helped Synchrony grow exponentially in India.

His knowledge, from process development to auditing, quality and operations management, gives him an edge to take on challenges and provide ingenious solutions. His philosophy "happy people make great workplaces" has helped build a great culture of diversity and inclusion driving innovation and performance.

A senior vice president and the global head of HR and other enabling functions at Cignex, Ankita Singh has over 22 years of progressive experience in managing and leading various aspects of HR and other people functions.

A third-time winner of this honour, she has excelled in establishing innovative and competitive initiatives and institutionalising a strong performance-driven culture at Cignex, which has resulted in the company being certified as a "Great Place to Work" in 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21.

The life of Anu Aggarwal is a story of miracles. Her Anu Aggarwal Foundation (AAF) is a cause, a mission and a vision that Anu, a mega film star and a supermodel in the 90s, dedicates herself to unstintingly.

A gold medallist graduate topper in MSW, Anu is now an alternative yoga therapist, a Science of Happiness ( edX Berkeley University) teacher, a naturopathy doctor, and many other things.

She's the proprietor of AnuFunYoga ^TM (AFY), a remarkable tool that she teaches for the mental health of an institution or a group. Aggarwal has worked tirelessly for the good of others, impacting 220,060 people thus far.

Anubhav Kumar Gupta is associated with Pitney Bowes for more than 14 years, and has 17+ years of overall experience. He is a seasoned software professional in domains like GIS, location intelligence, retail finance, shipping/mailing, and ecommerce.

As part of handling large delivery teams across geographies, focusing on the engagement of team members is a key success factor.

A highly-engaged team brings accountability and ownership, which helps develop the personal brand of the individual within the organisation and helps identify his/her growth path.

Aseem Bakshi has a passion for simplifying things by institutionalising everything in a process. His ability to identify the root cause of any problem and offer multiple solutions simultaneously sets him apart from the crowd. His penchant to take ownership of an initiative and get it done in a multi-team environment makes him a great asset.

Due to his cross-functional role, he has mastered the art of servant leadership. Bakshi has a great sense of humour and likes light-hearted movies and series. He loves deep-sea diving and has a passion for wildlife photography.

Ashok Soota, executive chairman of Happiest Minds Technologies Limited, is widely recognised as one of the pioneering leaders of the Indian IT industry. As a serial entrepreneur, he has led both companies he founded, Happiest Minds (2020) and MindTree (2007), to successful IPOs.

Happiest Minds Technologies Limited is a 'Born Digital. Born Agile' IT company. Soota has been the president of CII, a member of the Prime Minister's Task Force for IT and was on the advisory council for the World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva.

He is also a fellow of INAE and CSI and is on the board of governors of Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Philippines. Soota is co-author of the national bestseller – Entrepreneurship Simplified: From Idea to IPO and his hobbies include trekking, the outdoors, yoga, taichi, meditation and swimming.

Asish Raha is a visionary who can conceive, nurture and execute enterprises, and can manage and lead the HR function. He has 25+ years of experience, having worked in companies like Tata Motors, Reliance Retail, Apollo Gleneagles Hospital, Spencer's Retail, GPT Group.

He is currently working as vice president, HR, AMRI Hospitals, managing four units and a medical centre. He is a recipient of awards like Top HR Leaders Award 2018 (West Bengal), CHRO of the Year Award 2019 by Genius HR Excellence, and Top Gear by Spencer's Retail for his outstanding performance.

Atul Barjatya has an MBA in marketing, and 29+ years of experience in M&A, corporate strategy, P&L management, marketing management, sales management, sales force effectiveness and training & development. He has experience across commercial functions of primary care to super specialty TAs in pharmaceuticals and life science business and relevant operations organisations.

He has climbed up the corporate ladder, and, in the process, created more leaders who follow his inspirational style, thus building a career of success.

Atul Bist is a senior assistant vice president at Invest India, where he heads the "Make in India" mandate as an evangelist, strategist and policymaker to build India's strategic investment pipeline, and to develop its business landscape through new policy formulation & structural reforms in the electronics manufacturing, technology, media & entertainment and telecom sectors. He's a President of India Award recipient.

Ayush Khandelwal is a versatile finance professional with 10+ years of diversified experience in financial & commercial management. He brings a thoughtful approach to leadership.

He has been with Netcore for 7+ years and has climbed up the ladder from an Individual contributor to a team leader across financial functions.

His forte is in building, guiding and strengthening teams for business excellence. His focus continues to create sustainable values, and manage risk and robotic processes for Netcore by the increased use of digital technologies and virtual platforms.

Being a certified HR professional, Balaji KS has led both the people and client success teams for over 19+ years and has received a handful of accolades, year on year, including from the World HR Board and the world HR Congress.

He is an unconventional thinker and a meticulous planner who ensures to focus on creating a positive impact in the business by balancing the needs of both people and clients. Known for identifying and building the capability of people and multicultural teams to accelerate business outcomes, he is a giver and has inspired many.

C Prem Kumar is an award-winning , business-focussed, passionate and conscientious HR leader with experience across APAC and EMEA regions. He has 27 years of fast-track HR experience across industries. Prem is trained in organisational effectiveness tools and techniques. He has been recognised for conducting various skill development programmes by the CII and the Govt of India and has been instrumental in creating student chapters of International HR bodies to develop HR competencies among young professionals. Prem is a leader at Sobha Realty and for HR professionals around the world.

Chetan Jain is a quality professional with 24 years of experience in food, FMCG, pharmaceutical, and medical devices sectors. Quality Management System is one of his areas of expertise.

In a global role in Amway, he is heading function in quality to lead various projects, including standardisation and harmonisation of quality systems, software deployment, and data analytics to support various affiliates across the globe. His belief in people, their capabilities, and empowerment provide them with many opportunities to grow, making him popular among peers.

Debosmita Ghoshal is a skilled professional with extensive experience in human resources. She has handled key projects like automation of HRMS, streamlining of HR policies, launching RnR process, introducing and implementing new LnD initiatives across hierarchies, competency management, and coaching for senior leadership team. Ghoshal has improved the performance management system, redefined organisational culture and core values, and has been the wow factor in admin services in organisations such as Genpact, First Source, Secureness and GI Outsourcing.

Deepa Bhushan has over 20 years of experience and expertise in handling the 360-degree domain of education: Business management of schools, curriculum design and implementation, coaching and mentoring of school leadership, and teacher and leadership professional development.

She is the recipient of the National Award for Excellence from Kanchi Peeth Shankaracharya for outstanding work in the field of education.

She's been awarded the Visionary Leader of the Year at the Future Leaders Summit, and Best Director at the International School Awards, Dubai. She has been an eminent speaker at various platforms, including TEDx, and has also written books and teacher manuals on financial literacy, global literacy and digital literacy for young children.

Deepak Khetrapal, who has been leading Orient Cement Ltd for nearly 10 years, brings with him a long and rich experience of leading several large corporates in multiple sectors, including manufacturing, retailing and services. He is frequently called a 'leader of leaders' and has mentored several senior leaders in his corporate career.

He is a quintessential people's person. While warm, compassionate, accessible and grounded, his sharp business acumen is evident in his superfast analytical skills and his quick decisions, irrespective of how hard, at times, they need to be to safeguard and nurture the business.

His natural comfort with people, his energy levels, and his amazing empathy for almost everyone, irrespective of level, rank or age, who comes in contact with him, is legendary.

Deepak Kumar Parashar has over 18 years of experience in the IT industry. He experience spans core IT delivery for large and complex enterprise transformation programmes across geographies (the US, the UK, Singapore, Norway, Australia, China) and industries (BFSI, public service, manufacturing, power and utility, and telecom).

In his current role at Infosys, he is focusing on bringing the right solutions to clients, managing alliances, sales support, vertical solution strategy, knowledge management and competency building through greatness in leadership.

Deepak Yadav is working with Iris Software as senior director, project management. He is PMP, CSM, SAFe 5 Agilist & SCJP certified professional with more than 19 years of experience in technical and strategic project planning and implementation.

He has successfully led large product development projects in geographically distributed environments using agile distributed methodology at Iris.

He played a pivotal role in conceptualising and implementing industry best practices within the delivery teams to enhance customer satisfaction through metrics collection, analysis and process compliance, demonstrating people leadership for business growth.

Devesh Chawla is an ingenious strategist, a mentor, an investor, a TEDx speaker, an efficient leader and, to sum it all, an all-rounder. He is a sought-after speaker, and a good listener as well.

Chawla is highly regarded for his brisk planning and execution. He is deeply committed to add value to the start-up ecosystem and revolutionise the entrepreneurship picture in India.

Chatur Ideas is his sincere effort to create a one-stop solution for start-ups and entrepreneurs, which he has successfully done. He has received multiple awards both nationally and internationally for his work.

Devika Tomar, the founder and the creative half of House of Tomar, believes in the "inhale creative energy, exhale aesthetic" philosophy. She has worked for renowned clients like Shankar Mahadevan, Matchbox Pictures, and celebrity designer and actor Masaba Gupta.

After completing her education at Pearl Academy, she looked at reinventing the way women look at fashion. Instead of designing for the male gaze, she created "borrowed from men" style and changed the game to make it about women themselves.

Dibyajyoti Pattanaik has over 16 years of experience in microfinance, micro-enterprise development and development sector consulting. He is the director of Annapurna Finance Pvt Ltd, and is serving as the president of Odisha Association of Financial Inclusion, which is working towards financial inclusion in Odisha to serve the poor through responsible finance.

Pattanaik also serves as a board member of Microfinance Institutions Network, and has contributed to the issues of the financial inclusion sector.

Dinesh Kumar is a competent professional with over 12 years of experience in the areas of supply chain management, logistics, business development and sourcing. He also has a comprehensive industry experience.

An out-of-the-box thinker, Kumar has worked on multiple business transformation projects across different business functions, designing innovative solutions. His core strength is creating and building trust among his team members to get the best out of them. At ElasticRun, he has helped in scaling the procurement function.

Gagan Arora, the second-time winner of this prestigious honour, is a first-generation tech entrepreneur, a tenacious leader, and a tech evangelist. He has successfully established himself as a well-known brand in the industry. Arora's responsibilities as CEO are not restricted to the company's profitability and growth, but includes a broad range of functions. This encompasses risk appetite, opportunity pursuing ability, operational efficiency, including any safety concerns, and the capacity to guide in a crisis, such as a recession or a pandemic. In addition, as a meticulous leader, he is dedicated to teamwork, motivating employees, maintaining the trust of shareholders, and engaging with stakeholders and the larger community.

Ganesh Poojary is a leader with 22 years of experience in corporate facility management and administration across various industries like financial services, textile, telecom , media and now real estate.

He spearheads human resource management and administration at the Lodha Group. He is a strong believer of developing in-house talent to create future leaders. In his experience, Poojary has developed many great managers/leaders who are currently leading services for various conglomerates.

His mantras for great people management are having a clear objective, driving inclusive decision-making, empowering the team and giving them their space to see splendid outcomes.

Gaurav Kambli is a development and support module lead with 14 years of experience. He is mainly involved in the creation and monitoring of KPIs, compliance with SLAs and is the main POC for all key internal and external stakeholders.

Kambli is a goal-oriented professional with exceptional technical knowledge and skills. Abilities in leadership, planning, and organisational decision-making and team building make him a team player with exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, leading to business performance.

Well-known as a techno-domain thought leader, Glory Nelson wears the hat of a Chief People Officer, nurturing the people talent of Xebia. Having a technology background as head of IT delivery, programme manager, delivery manager and a strategic consultant, her understanding of people requirements in an IT company makes her a top people strategist within the organisation.

In her current role as CPO, Nelson oversees People Success (People Operations, Learning and Development, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, Total Rewards, People Business Partners). She was responsible for aligning business objectives with people solutions, making Xebia a Great Place to Work-certified organisation.

Gobinda Chandra Pattanaik is a pioneer in the field of microfinance with over two decades of experience; he has always been at the forefront of implementing developmental activities and building microenterprises.

His urge and will power towards creating means to sustainable livelihood for women led him to establish Annapurna Finance Pvt Ltd. He is an advisor to many district administrations and has played a key role in setting up various community-based institutions.

Gurmeet Singh Bhatia is an IIM-C alumnus who brings in more than 15 years of experience in operations of retail and multiplex set-ups. His people management skills have been recognised and awarded by Asia Pacific HRM Congress in the past. His leadership style ensures his team achieves not only professional but also personal growth. He believes in building a positive and healthy work relationship with his team, providing regular feedback and listening to their viewpoints. He directs and motivates his team to achieve goals.

Gyanendra Shukla is a passionate professional with more than 30 years of leadership experience in the seed and crop protection industry in India, Asia Pacific and Africa regions. He has managed various senior functional and general management roles in commercial, sales, corporate affairs, technology development and regulatory affairs functions.

He enjoys building businesses and meaningful interactions with external stakeholders on the challenges of approaches to improve productivity and farm income by leveraging best global technologies.

A postgraduate in human resource management, Haridass Supriya has more than 16 years of experience. She is a strong believer in building an exceptional organisation culture and creating bonds between employers and employees to give the latter the best experience.

Supriya understands the strategic needs of the organisation and holds full accountability in all HR aspects, which include talent acquisition, talent management, talent engagement, talent development and talent advocacy.

Harsh Agrawal has eight years of experience in building technology-driven solutions to simplify business operations. His people management philosophy is to trust and empower the team, as they know the best ways to solve a problem. According to his team, he is a dynamic, self-motivated, result-oriented leader and a people's person.

Agarwal is passionate about grooming and helping his team succeed, and tackling any stress they may face. His work mantra: Live up to the DOPUT values, keep it simple and be awesome always.

Jayakumar K holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Kerala, and is currently the director of KIDMR Target Premier entrance coaching educational institute, established in 2007.

He has been imparting quality education services to dental and medical students from all parts of India, and has published more than 25 papers, edited four text books, and is editor-in-chief of two scientific journals. He is a reviewer and editorial board member of around 20 global research journals. His leadership style has helped him evolve into a well-loved academician.

Jayaprakash Shetty is an HR Leader with more than 18 years of experience in transforming a business vision into HR initiatives to improve performance, profitability and employee engagement. He has a rich experience across different HR verticals, including employee engagement, talent acquisition, employee relations, HR operations, etc.

He has been the key driver behind creating and executing end-to-end HR strategies. Shetty is empathetic towards his team and understands its challenges and needs.

He believes that trust and transparency are the key elements in employee relationships. He helps nurture his team members and empowers them to get their best. He is passionate about what he does and has created a positive work environment for his team.

Jayen Naik is the operations head for all the 16 malls in the Nexus portfolio, totalling 10 million sq ft of retail space and spread across 12 cities. He is also in-charge of all upgradation and expansion activities at these malls. In a career spanning close to three decades, Naik has shown a strong understanding of the operations, marketing and sales verticals.

He also has C-level management consulting experience in entering new markets, and growing existing markets, market shares and revenues.

Joyanta Besterwitch leads the technical solutions team within the customer success function, and works closely with the product, engineering and sales teams to ensure customers get the most value from Kissflow's suite of work management software products.

He is empathetic with his team as well as customers. He believes it helps him see the world from their perspective and be a better problem-solver.

He derives great joy in helping people become better versions of themselves. He has studied only up to high school and does not have any formal college education. But he has proved that one can be successful with conviction, hard work and empathy.

Jyoti Arora has been felicitated with the National Award to Teachers 2020 by the President of India for her efforts in education and leadership. She is also the recipient of the CBSE Teachers Award 2013, CBSE Mentor Award 2012, CBSE Sports Promotion Award 2013 and State Teachers Award 2008.

As CBSE Master Trainer for Pedagogical Leadership, she has successfully trained more than 1,000 school leaders across India. She also heads Indraprastha Schools Sahodaya—a cluster of around 100 CBSE affiliated schools. That apart, she is National Commissioner (Guides) at Hindustan Scouts and Guides Association, as well as an executive member of the Action Committee—India's largest private schools body.

Keshav Goyal lights up a room with his infectious knack for taking ownership at work and his ability to make you believe in the best version of yourself. Always approachable—not only as a leader, but also as a friend—Goyal leaves people in awe of him when it comes to facing new challenges head-on. As an over-achiever who has repeatedly proved his business mettle as a people's leader, he is an inspiration for those around him.

A decisive leader, who is best at delivering largescale programmes and leading multi-disciplinary teams on the ground, Kingshuk Neogi manages application maintenance and support engagements for multiple clients in the US region.

During his 18-year stint in the IT industry with Infosys—from software developer to his current position—he has leveraged his vast experience to develop his unique '3T' framework to engage team members and build 'power teams', earning him the moniker of 'teacher'.

Prior to his current role, Kulathendral Loganathan was heading the innovation department. where he was responsible for launching innovative jewellery and lifestyle products to customers in the US through ShopLC and the UK through TJC. He has been a good team leader with core values. His passion for work and zeal to learn more, and his style of leadership, separate him from the rest.

Kunal Chauhan drives the company's technology strategy and is responsible for spearheading business leadership for key accounts as well as enabling new sales. With the QA InfoTech acquisition, he is a key player in the company's global leadership to align Qualitest as a leading digital transformation enabler.

Chauhan leads a newly bootstrapped global horizontal, which works with critical functions such as business, sales, CoEs to facilitate clients' end-to-end product delivery and transformation needs.

Though he holds a postgraduate degree in social work from the University of Mangalore, Lohith SG chose sales as his career. To him, sales is like math, wherein one has to master and know a workable formula to deliver the desired results. He believes that great things in business are never done by one person... they are done by a team. He says an ideal manager not only does things right but also does the right things. As a result, success becomes inevitable.

Over the years, Manish Kumar has acquired immense experience in the BFSI segment, and has a proven track record in conceptualising and executing strategy, innovation and people management. He is appreciated by his organisation for his consistent, exceptional contribution. He also involves himself in mentoring a startup. He is known for his positive attitude that he passes on to his team, while handling tough periods in challenging projects.

Manjusrii Manilal is a transformative business leader with substantial senior management experience across different product categories in managing functions, including marketing and communications, innovation, sales and business development, and digital and customer service. In her 12-year stint at HM Group, she has connected real estate spaces to people and communities to drive growth by applying the 'people-first' approach to insights, innovation and customer connections.

A multi-faceted professional with proven expertise in delivering complex projects and working across diverse competencies, Mohammad Adnan Khan has more than 12 years of experience in sales and marketing and general management in Readymix Concrete Industry.

He focuses on the firm's strategy and growth by aligning and motivating teams towards superordinate goals. He was instrumental in setting up the Mumbai business of RDC Concrete from scratch and made it profitable in a short time.

Khan has the uncanny ability to understand people and he uses that to empower his team by providing them with industry exposure and continuous learning opportunities.

Known for setting high benchmarks and leading by example, Monika Nagpal has carved a niche for herself in the automobile industry with her unconventional approach to marketing. In the domain of automobile dealership, consistent marketing innovation is her forte and that has resulted in her bagging multiple awards. She started her career with top media houses like The Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar Group, and has successfully charted an upward professional trajectory since then through noteworthy marketing and branding initiatives.

With 18 years of experience in retail sales and distribution, Nadeem Ahmad Siddiqui has carved a niche for himself in the fintech world. He believes that the 'internal customers', or team members, are a priority for a company. After graduating from Allahabad University, he completed his MBA, and has worked with Tata Teleservices, ICICI, Paymate and Spice Money in the past. His mantra is to take on the impossible and do everything to make it possible; he achieves this by trusting people, developing them and building future leaders from within the team.

Fondly called 'Nat' by his team, Natarajan Laxsmanan has over 20 years' experience of managing people. He is passionate about diversity and inclusivity. He understands people, adapts to their individual styles and infuses a sense of belonging as he builds a team like a family. He is good in conflict management, and believes in building core fundamentals in a team rather than superficial training. Laxsmanan is of the opinion that happy, satisfied and unified people are the best investments in a business and key to its success.

With over 20 years of experience across geographies in the engineering and technology industry, Naveen Munnangi has led several customer engagements in aerospace, appliance, energy and industrial product lifecycle management, driving innovation.

He has had global engineering leadership roles and executed full lifecycle product launches, managing multiple technology programmes. His passion for data analytics and technology adoption helped him develop new market growth areas and delivered value for customers.

He strongly believes in building an atmosphere of trust aligned with continuous learning and open communication.

Armed with a master's in business, Neha Nigam has gained a lot of ground experience from different aspects of her job in the last decade and a half. At Amway India, she leads training in the north region and contributes significantly towards conversions, numbers' growth and data curves. She manages her relationships with distributors and her team alike with sincerity, warmth, transparency and a growth mindset.

An alumnus of Harvard Business School, Nilay Bhargava is a seasoned mortgage professional with more than 17 years of experience. He has handled multiple roles and aspects of mortgage lending during his journey—from sales, business development, customer service and marketing to collection and operations.

He joined as the first employee for South India at Godrej Housing Finance and has helped set up the entire team. A leader known to drive a team, he has delivered results with efficient people management.

Always ready for a new challenge after her successful corporate stints, NIsha Singhania co-founded her independent integrated agency 'Infectious' with Ramanuj Shastry eight years ago. She has won several awards since and has been featured in eminent lists of women leaders. A leader who inspires her clients as well as her team through her successes, she is setting new benchmarks in the advertising industry and for leaders across industries.

A human resources veteran, Parul Mathur Saxena has spearheaded transformative journeys across well-known organisations by going beyond the obvious. She has played a pivotal role in bringing paradigm shifts by leading programmes that help employees unleash their true potential. A firm believer in leading by example, she maintains that true accomplishment is about imparting knowledge so that others around you grow.

Her mantra of success stems from her belief in 'making it happen' instead of 'waiting for it to happen'. In her words, nobody is a born leader, though they become one with their determination, hunger to excel, and vision to create something unique along with a winning environment.

Philip Masih is a dynamic HR professional with over a decade of experience in design, and implementation of innovative and best-in-class HR, leadership and talent initiatives with a solution-oriented approach. He is enthusiastic about building successful teams and loves to partner and contribute with businesses to make 2COMS Group a great and sustainable place to work.

Pramod Bikshapati Ganji is the vice president, business development, at Infibeam Avenues Ltd, a fintech organisation operating at a global scale. He leverages his business expertise, marketing insights, and exceptional people management skills to build revenue generating streams from scratch and deliver optimal results for his organisation and its clientele.

Recognised for his aggressive task-oriented approach and proven ability to face challenges head-on, he is successful in creating and managing strategic business alliances, while building high-performing teams internally.

Praveen Nair is the founder and managing director of Xcubated Business Solutions (XBS), an advisory, consulting, digital transformation and smart products organisation with a presence in India, Australia, Europe and the UK.

He has also founded Widea Digital, a cloud tech and advertisement services company that shares the innovation framework of Xcubated to take joint solutions to the market.

He has demonstrated success in growth platforms, practice building, global client relationships, sales/account direction and outcome delivery, using his proven skills in developing practical strategies, executing large programmes and directing highly-skilled leaders.

With over 14 years of experience in advertising and digital marketing, Priya Biyani Arora is passionate about building brands and nurturing creative teams. She thinks like a consumer, acts like an entrepreneur and creates like a storyteller.

Her style of work has always been a team-first approach and she believes in investing time in each of her team members as each individual brings something unique to the table.

In her previous roles, she has worked on 75 brands across 18 industries, led teams of over 30 people in the collaborative development of designs and creative strategy, and worked closely with multidisciplinary project teams. She believes in a non-hierarchical culture of collaboration, transparency, respect, and trust.

Ramakrishna Rao is a seasoned learning and organisation development leader with more than 16 years of experience across IT, ITES, retail and consumer product sectors. He currently leads L&D for Page Industries (Jockey India). Being a certified and practising coach, he is known as "Coach Ram" in the social circuit. He blogs regularly on LinkedIn and is known for his insightful posts and book summaries on personal effectiveness, talent management, leadership development and career building. His newsletter 'Career Trek' on Linkedin is one of the most followed ones.

Ramesh Ranjan handles the digital marketing, inside sales and analyst relations at 24-7 Intouch. He has over 17 years experience in B2B and B2C marketing, leadership and communications, marketing analytics and automation, media relations, corporate communications (internal and external), organisation intranet management, print, and broadcast media. Ranjan manages multi-geography, cross-functional teams and was a significant contributor to Knoah Solutions' growth story (now acquired by 24-7 Intouch).

He was also a broadcast news media professional producing programmes with 30-plus million daily viewership in India. He is a postgraduate in journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, and has an MBA in marketing.

Ranjith Ravindran is an approachable and committed team leader at Alight Solutions (NGA HR). He believes people are the true assets and pillars of an organisation. He maintains a continuous communication line with his team, which helps him stay connected. Ravindran believes in openly lauding people for their good work and follows a collaborative approach by welcoming ideas and thoughts from them.

He has a positive and healthy work relationship with his team, providing regular feedback on the good work done and opportunities to work upon. He tries to understand the abilities of each individual and create a career path based on an individual's passion.

A tax professional associated with Infosys Limited for 17 years, Ravi Sidula currently manages the overseas tax matters of the company for North America and the Asia Pacific region. He is responsible for managing tax compliances and litigations effectively, advising business units, mitigating tax risks, data analytics and process automation.

He leads a well-groomed and passionate team that navigates the labyrinth of global taxes in a complex and uncertain tax environment. He is part of the Infosys tax team that has been awarded as 'Best In-house Tax Team in Asia' by Euromoney five years in a row.

Ravindra Dandekar is an 'all-rounder' and a team player with his vast knowledge of all the critical processes of the department. His commitment to DCB Bank is unmatched. He is always up for shouldering additional responsibilities and tasks. He has a great work ethic and is a perfect example of giving sustained business results with a leadership style focussed on nurturing and leading by example.

Renu Jethani brings 18 years of rich and holistic experience in business partnering, building culture and cohesive teams, leading and nurturing talent across ITES, media, FMCG and BFSI industries.

In her role as Geo HR lead for India, Jethani has been instrumental in helping build an engaged workforce, a great place to work and a future-ready organisation.

She has been instrumental in driving 200 percent growth in employee experience scores, a Great Place to Work certification year after year, 20 percent enhancement in diversity and doubling of employee retention levels in the last two years.

Sameer Mathur, a Sloan Fellow of MIT Sloan School of Management, is skilled in business development, team building and leadership development. He carried his distribution and general management experience of 21 years to become an entrepreneur creating ROI Net six years ago. The central theme has been common since then—building a profitable revenue model while making a deep social impact by positively impacting the lives of millions of Indians in rural India.

Sameer Mehta is the CEO of Dr Mehta's Hospital (amongst India's oldest and most respected private hospitals). He is also the co-founder of India Home Health Care, Arya Play Games and Atlas Intelligence. Mehta serves on the boards of IIT Madras Rural & Technology Incubator, the Atlas Family Office, Proklean Technologies, Twixor AI and HealthSensei. He is the co-creator of the Values Game and the Fears Game.

Sandeep Kumar has over 23 years of experience in managing and driving multiple aspects of HR spanning various industries—the development sector, IT, telecom, ITES, hospitality and integrated facilities management. He has enabled various business units' growth through innovative and pioneering people practices backed by effective execution excellence.

He has enabled multiple new businesses' growth with a startup mindset while working in a large corporation. He likes to guide and mentor young HR leaders and students. As head, HR operations of Sodexo in India, he is handling a team of 120 HR professionals who serve a workforce of 45,000.

Sanjiv Marwah is an industry-veteran-turned-academician and recipient of the Rashtriya Gaurav Shiksha Puraskar (2015), Academic Leader of the Year (2016) and Leader in Asia with Global Vision (2019). He is widely respected for his ability to bridge the skill gap between industry and academia. He has held the position of director since 2006.

An expert in strategic management and customer retention, he has been closely associated with global business schools and universities. He has curated many conferences, authored research papers, published two books and is the founder-editor of a refereed journal.

A committed lending professional and a two-time organisational-level award winner, Saroj Kumar Dash has over 16 years of diverse corporate experience in the field of retail assets and lending. A seasoned finance professional and an old hand at mortgages, Dash is in charge of product strategy design of the new age banking model leveraging fintech and risk management techniques.

Dash's core strength lies in his flexibility to work across functions, using his people leadership skills. He has played a key role in setting up business processes and policies to drive growth.

Savio Vincent Mendonca is a seasoned internal audit and finance professional with more than 23 years of experience in information technology (IT), and manufacturing and logistics. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant (CA), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and Certified Finance Manager (CFM). Mendonca has proven his success at work through his unique leadership style of nurturing leaders in his team.

Sekhar Guduru is an innovative business leader focussed on programme management, digital transformation, and infrastructure/services. He has over 15 years of experience driving large-scale technology transformational efforts delivering key strategic outcomes. He has won many national and international awards for implementing key programmes and initiatives. He is a visiting faculty at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAIICT) and has been recognised as a Golden Guru-TCS.

Serge De Vos currently leads the Global Capability Center for AB-InBev in India. His experience of 14 years at the company has been characterised by bold cross-functional moves from leading tech teams to Logistics Operations Center to supply chain for Europe. In 2018, he moved to India to lead the center for the finance, commercial and people operations.

In a span of three years, Serge empowered the team to transform the center into a preferred partner by building value-added capabilities, delivering business value through intelligent operations, developing talent, and leading a highly engaged team. Serge is a Belgian national and an MBA from INSEAD.

Shiva Prasad RS is an environment, health and safety (EHS) professional with an overall experience of 25 years. He heads the EHS function at plant level (Head EHS) and has a sound network with government sectors under relevant statutes (specifically under Factories Act, Pollution Control, Waste Management, etc).

He is a leader of the people, leading a team of EHS professionals, ensuring compliances and nurturing a culture of a pollution-free and 'injury-free' organisation through EHS measures. His focus on the wellness of his team, among other things, makes him inspirational.

As a regional controller, Shweta Gulati's profile/job responsibilities include stringently adhering to timelines for reporting of key numbers and statutory compliances; focus on optimisation of financial performance of the region, which can be achieved by collecting receivables as per the timeline and managing costs both efficiently and effectively, thus contributing to the overall returns of the company.

Siddharth Pandey started his journey as a developer in 2009-10, during the time of recession, and has grown with good company, books and sports to keep him motivated. He uses the same techniques to motivate his team, and even uses the power of technology in his leadership, demonstrating a role model leadership style for technology leaders. Having built a 700+ people company from scratch in eight years, he has proven that leadership is key to business growth.

With almost a decade of industry experience, Smit Joshi started Green Apex from scratch and built it into a 120+ employee company within seven years. Having helped 200+ clients across the world, his core expertise remains with business and communication, where he has involved himself with marketing, sales, recruitment, and strategy. As a leader, he is known for his capability to nurture and build a team, resulting in the fast growth of his organisation.

Sneh Jain, aka Croissant Loafer, had chalked out a plan well in advance on how he wants his professional journey to look like. In the 11th grade, he had made up his mind to do an MBA from IIM. Sneh worked with McKinsey and Co. on projects all over the world.

However, a few years later, the itch to start his own business kicked in and The Baker's Dozen was born. His entrepreneurial enthusiasm finds a permanent seat in his undaunting ambition. His vision, strong mindset, and passion manifest in his team and have helped in taking the bakery to greater heights.

Soniya Prithiani Raisinghani started her career as a luxury sales executive with Lodha, and 14 years later, she leads multiple teams. From selling Mumbai's most expensive real estate property to the most challenging life cycled projects, her teams have done it all. Her focus on building a sales team culture that is high on empathy, has attention to detail, and celebrates individual success is instrumental in creating the most dynamic sales teams. Her role in upskilling team members from diverse backgrounds and skill sets has played a major role in the extraordinary performance of her teams.

Strategic leadership for Srinath Gururajarao is an opportunity to collaborate and unleash the collective spirit of the team to achieve something more meaningful. Working through the years with people and creating shared successes has been his signature strength. An influencer who brings in the humane to the table in every conversation, he has ensured that successes are not bereft of the people who were responsible for it. Srinath also holds a few patents in HR and is a technology buff.

Sujatha Gade holds a doctorate degree in psychology and a postgraduate degree in mathematics. An exceptional educator with a perfect blend of experience and expertise, she has initiated various student-centric programmes, which stem from her people management style. As the principal of the Diamond Jubilee High School in Hyderabad, she has been deftly moulding its educational environment.

Sunil Jaywant Yewale has been associated with Netcore since 2006, where he innovated and built from scratch. He now heads the customer support for Netcore Cloud CPaaS business, where he works to create exceptional customer experiences. He believes that an ideal way to measure the success of any customer support team is overall customer experience and satisfaction.

Sunil Vishwakarma spearheads the risk management team at Dream11. He has a proven track record of mitigating risk and identifying potential frauds at Dream11. He believes in a people-first approach which makes him a great manager. His out-of-the-box thinking to tackle challenges makes him an efficient problem-solver.

Supriya Kakar possesses knowledge and experience in project management and service delivery. She appreciates people, thinks and executes big. A leader who believes in the power of gratitude and humility, she is a role model for her team.

Sushant Verma has an experience of 12 years in the IT industry. His vision is to be an honest, empathetic and impactful project leader, and deliver value-added projects using his values of professionalism, accountability, excellence and collaboration. He focuses on identifying the hidden potential of his team members, empowers them to learn new skills and grow personally and professionally.

Syed Arifulla was evaluated during his time at Mphasis. His team showed an appreciation for his leadership style, which focussed on strong connect and development.

Tony Fernandez's simplicity and humility reflects in his leadership style, and makes him an adored and respected leader among his team members. He has over seven years of experience in talent advisory, talent acquisition, secretarial, and business partner HR functions spread across IT, banking and financial domains. He knows how to influence others without authority.

Trishneet Arora is a visionary who started his entrepreneurial journey in 2013 at the age of 19. Under his leadership, TAC Security has been securing the world's top brands while disrupting cyberspace. His mission is to ensure people experience the future of cybersecurity, today.

Usha Jaiswal is an HR practitioner with a strong focus on a human-first approach. She holds a master's degree in human resources management from IIM-Lucknow. She is skilled in talent management, performance improvement and culture-building.

With over 13 years of experience, Vaibhav has proficiency in overseeing creative campaigns for leading global brands, and has generated and implemented creative ideas within record campaign deadlines.

He has been managing the US, Europe, India, Middle East and South Asian markets. He understands that people management is all about managing relationships within the work environment, and his team relies on him when they come across unexpected hurdles or complex situations at work.

Vandana Jain is experienced in the field of corporate facilities and administration. She nurtures her team on the principles of 'connect, develop and inspire'. Members of her team often credit her for the growth and professional development they have seen under her leadership.

Varun Luthra is an L&D professional with over 15 years of experience in organisational development, skill enhancement, training management, and instructional design.

Currently leading Skill-Up, the professional development initiative for Mphasis BPS-DR, he manages content services and skill enhancement teams by overseeing a group of 40+ learning specialists. He leads training workstreams, including developing and managing project plans in alignment with timeframes, budget, scheduling and resources.

Venkat J Swaroop manages global teams and Fortune 500 clients across geographies. His capability to understand business and people make him a well-loved leader, who is considered an inspiration by his team. Leading by example, he uses his strong people skills to drive results.

Vikas Chadha has won the Dynamic Business Leader Award at the Asia GCC Conference and Awards. He has also won the Udyog Bharati Award on behalf of London-based global accounting and financial services outsourcing major GI Outsourcing at the Indian Achievers Forum in July 2021.

Vinay Ranjan has 26 years of work experience in talent acquisition, talent management, performance management, employer branding, compensation management, enterprise resource planning, change management, employee engagement, industrial relations, and training and development.

He has also extended HR support to overseas entities at different geographies. He is known for his stakeholder management skills and empathy with high level of service delivery and execution.

Yogesh Arora believes in leading by example and making himself approachable to everyone in the organisation. His managerial approach involves grooming emerging leaders, building trust and personal relationships. He inspires creators by showing how creative excellence is also a function of people leadership, and is loved by his team for his nurturing abilities.