The chief human resources officer (CHRO) is a top-level management executive in charge of an organization’s employees. The CHRO is responsible for running an organization’s human capital management and other HR technology systems.
Increased competition for employee talent has elevated the importance of the HR function in companies, nonprofits and government agencies. The rapid development and adoption of HR software and increased government compliance requirements have also contributed to HR’s growing importance.
As a result, organizations have raised the status of their senior HR leader to the level of C-suite executives, such as the chief information officer, chief finance officer (CFO), chief marketing officer and chief operating officer, with more or less equal access to the chief executive officer (CEO). Sometimes, instead of CHRO, organizations use titles such as vice president of human resources or chief people officer.
01. Ashwani Prashara
Company – Reliance Industries Limited
Ashwani Prashara is the Chief Human Resource Officer of Reliance Industries Limited. He is HR leader with over 32 years of global experience across the entire gamut of HR activities with expertise in driving HR transformational initiatives, Change Management, HR Capability Building and Industrial Relations. Currently, He is responsible for HR, Corporate Services and Medical Services functions for Hydrocarbons and Allied Businesses.
He is specialised in HR Strategy, Industrial Relations, Total Rewards Strategies, Organizational Development, Change Management, Business Revitalisation, Growth Enablement, Human Resources Transformation and Service Delivery, Human Capital Strategy & Management.
02. Milind Lakkad
Company – Tata Consultancy Services
Milind Lakkad is the Chief Human Resource Officer and Executive Vice President of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). As CHRO, Milind is focussed on further strengthening the high performance culture of TCS, and is passionate about building a purpose driven, learning organization that transcends geographical barriers, and embraces practices that enable the future of work. The wellbeing of the diverse 450,000+ workforce is at the centre of the people strategy driven by Milind that focuses on learning, work and social collaboration and engagement with purpose. He strongly believes in the motto that a happy workplace is where every employee is encouraged to follow their passion, invest in lifelong learning, thrive together and stay hungry. He sees the role of HR as a key enabler – proactively partnering with business to enable long term planning and growth, institutionalizing collaboration to leverage ecosystems, and reinforcing the TCS Way by harnessing the diversity of the organization and creating a common language across the organization based on TCS values. Driving compliance to local and regulatory requirements across the globe, while creating value for the entire ecosystem of customers, analysts, partners and societies globally will continue to be his prime focus. With continued efforts towards social initiatives focused on education, healthcare, and sustainability, Milind envisions creating impact globally through inclusion and empowerment.
03. Vinay Razdan
Company – HDFC Bank Ltd
Mr. Vinay Razdan is the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) of HDFC Bank. In his current role, he is responsible for the entire human resource function in the Bank. Prior to joining the bank in September 2018, Mr. Razdan was the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at Idea Cellular Ltd. He had joined Idea in 2006 and spearheaded several transformational initiatives there. An HR veteran of 32+ years, Vinay brings in rich, vast and varied experience across sectors such as FMCG, IT Services and Telecommunications. He has held leadership positions with marquee organizations such as ITC Ltd, HCL Technologies and Idea Cellular Ltd. Under Vinay’s leadership, some of these organisations were recognised as great places to work. Vinay is an alumnus of Delhi University and holds a postgraduate degree/diploma in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from XLRI, Jamshedpur. Vinay is married to Jagriti, who is involved in various charitable causes. He is a football aficionado, and also enjoys playing cricket and table tennis. Reading and travelling are his other interests.
04. Krishnamurthy Shankar
Company – Infosys
Krishnamurthy Shankar is an Executive Vice President and the Group Head of Human Resource Development at Infosys. In this role, he is responsible for envisioning the roadmap for HR, driving strategy, and implementing operational priorities aligned with the overall organizational mandate. Krish has over 30 years of experience and has led several global HR functions in organizations like Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever and Unilever. Prior to joining Infosys, Krish was the Head of HR for South Asia at Philips. In his wide ranging experience in these organizations, he has led the transformation of HR into a strategic partner, facilitated organization-wide transformation and capability development, and was instrumental in building a strong talent pool through a series of leadership development initiatives. Krish holds a postgraduate diploma in HR from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and has received an executive certificate in Strategy and Organization from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Krish is an avid reader, loves wildlife photography, and trekking. A football enthusiast, he occasionally runs half-marathons. He is passionate about teaching and exploring new ideas in HR and organization development. Krish is based in Bangalore.
05. Anuradha Razdan
Company – Hindustan Unilever Limited
Anuradha Razdan is the Executive Director HR of Hindustan Unilever Limited and Chief Human Resource Officer, South Asia at Unilever, Co-chair FICCI HR Committee. Her purpose is to spark magic between people, passion and opportunity for the benefit of the business, society and for everyone.
She is a business focused HR leader with an international career. Currently, she is serving as a member of the Management Committee of HUL, (an independently listed company) and CHRO for Unilever in South Asia. Her crucible experiences include Business Partnering members of the Unilever Executive, Strategic Assistant to former CHRO, global & local roles within Leadership Development, deep M&A experience and Global Head of Talent Attraction and Employer Brand. Strong equity advocate and change and transformation leader.
06. Srirang T K
Company – ICICI Bank
Srirang is the Group Chief Human Resource Officer at ICICI Bank Limited. He is also a Member of the Research Advisory Council of IIT Bombay – Monash Research Academy, Member of IMD, Switzerland’s Executive Education Advisory Council, Member of Society of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Member of the Governing Body ofThe International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B) and Board Member of the National HRD Network.
Mr. Srirang holds an MBA degree in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations and Bachelors in Industrial Engineering. He has been with the Bank since 2001. In his 20 years of work experience at organisations like Coca-Cola India Limited, Ford India Limited, ICI India limited and ICICI Bank, Srirang has handled Industrial Relations, Mergers, Leadership Development, Performance Management, Talent acquisition and employee engagement processes.
07. Anupam Sirbhaiya
Company – Bajaj Finance
Anupam Sirbhaiya is the Chief of Human Resources & Administration at Bajaj Finance Ltd. He has over 22 years of diverse management experience that spans working in Sales & Marketing, Consulting with startups, leading business strategy aligned learning interventions, to setting up and running a profit center. His foray into leadership development arena happened more than 15 years ago when he discovered a passion for it while working with leaders from start up organizations and has remained in this domain since then. Starting June 2016, he has taken up a new assignment, to Head the Group Learning Academy for Bajaj Finserv Group. The role aims to create a synergized learning approach, well anchored in the business, to support the diversified financial services portfolio of the Group.
08. Sukhjit Singh Pasricha
Company- Kotak Mahindra Bank
Sukhjit Singh Pasricha is the President and Group Chief Human Resource Officer of Kotak Mahindra Bank. His 25+ years of career is in Corporate HR roles and Business HR roles across different industry sectors and complex businesses (both B2B and B2C). His experience across the entire value chain of HR function has helped him gain the ability to understand business imperatives and align HR solutions to the same and also an in-depth understanding of technical subject matter in the area of Human Resources. Also the ability to work with senior-leadership, design policy and processes and work with large teams across locations. His Business aligned HR Strategy are Driving HR Transformation projects and Productivity, Building Organisational Capability, HR Technology (strategy, design and execution), Outsourcing and Change Management, HR Operations Analysing and Improving HR Metrics. He has Global exposure, in addition to specific India expertise. Also he is high on networking skills for environment scanning, analysing trends and deriving learnings.
09. Saurabh Govil
Company- Wipro
Saurabh Govil is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro, and a member of the Management Team. He leads all Wipro’s HR functions, including talent acquisition, talent engagement, and learning and development programs. Saurabh has been a HR practitioner for over two decades, and has worked with organizations like ITC and GE. Since joining Wipro in May, 2009, he has been instrumental in transforming the organization. His work with people, processes, and organizational structure over the last three years has contributed significantly to Wipro’s growth, improving operations and introducing many new initiatives. Saurabh is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur where he completed his master’s in human resources. He is on the advisory board of SHRM India. Saurabh has been a regular speaker at NASSCOM’s HR summit. He also contributes to NHRDN’s journal as an author.
10. Amrita Padda
Company- Bharti Airtel
Amrita Padda is the Chief People Officer of Bharti Airtel India. She joined Bharti Airtel on October 1, 2021. She reports to Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, Bharti Airtel. She is responsible for Airtel’s People strategy as the company transforms into a digital services provider of choice. Amrita has work experience of over two decades with Hindustan Unilever, where she has handled the entire spectrum of Human Resources roles. Most recently, she was the Chief People Officer for Unilever Marketplace, their newly set up global business unit to transform Distributive Trade. In the past, she has also led Human Resources for Unilever Philippines and for their Global Procurement function. She has strong expertise in leading Human Resources transformation projects globally and has been a pioneer of new initiatives at Unilever.