Jan 2015 – Jan 2025 · 10 yrs · Mumbai · Remote

• Served a decade on the board of one of India's most effective youth career readiness organisations, through significant growth from a Mumbai-focused nonprofit to a multi-state institution working with state governments across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Haryana and Goa, reaching over 185,000 students from socially and economically vulnerable backgrounds.
• Board contribution:
• Provided governance oversight and strategic direction during Antarang's most ambitious expansion, helping navigate the shift from a founder-led model to a professionally managed institution while preserving mission integrity.
• Coached and mentored the founder and leadership team through growth transitions, the same inflection points I work on with corporate leaders, but with fewer safety nets and higher stakes for the communities they serve.
• Opened networks for fundraising, attracted advisory board members and supported new initiative design, the practical work that rarely appears in job descriptions but determines whether an organisation actually scales.
• What this experience gave me:
• A board member's understanding of what scaling under resource constraint demands, of the organisation, of its leadership, and of the governance structures holding both together.
• Collaborated with founder Priya Agrawal on developing the Trust Network concept — a platform design for peer-validated skill credentialing for India’s informal workforce. The concept addresses the double barrier faced by millions of working-age Indians who have real abilities but no formal credentials and no bridge connections to the formal economy. Built on Granovetter’s research on the strength of weak ties and Antarang’s field experience with building block skills that predict workplace success but remain invisible to traditional credentialing systems.
• Also served as an Ashoka ASPIRe Mission Ally across two cohorts, providing pro bono strategic and coaching support to Ashoka Fellows working on population-scale social change.

Oct 2007 – Oct 2017 · 10 yrs · Mumbai, India

• Hansa Cequity is a leading Customer Marketing company. Cequity’s innovative products & services empower businesses to become more customer-centric by harnessing data, analytics, and technology. Pioneering a data-driven, measurable approach to marketing, I Co-led the company from concept to becoming a significant player in the Indian market, growing to over 800 employees across five offices.
• Growing & scaling a company led to much learning
• Key insights gained from founding and scaling the company:
• 1. Strategies for profitable growth-managing the P&L
• 1. Developing a founder's mindset in the team- working with frontline executives & senior leaders to develop a client-first philosophy
• 3. Building and sustaining a company culture from day one, coaching each team member, and focusing more on "what we do" rather than "what we say."
• 3. Navigating private equity investments—when and how to bring in external capital.
• 4. Leadership transition—knowing when to move on and pivot.
• As co-founder of Hansa Cequity, I had the privilege of helping build a company that redefined customer marketing in India. We didn’t just grow from a concept to a significant force with over 800 employees across five offices. We also pioneered a data-driven, measurable approach that enabled clients to leverage analytics and technology to create deeper connections with their customers. Our mission was to make businesses truly customer-centric by embedding data at the core of their strategies, and our innovative approach inspired others in the industry.
• Our growth required bold strategic decisions that established us as industry thought leaders. We obtained $5 million in private equity funding from ASK Pravi Capital, which gave us the confidence to grow in different directions.
• We also launched Customer Centricity World, a platform that reinforced Hansa Cequity’s role as a thought leader and showed clients the true power of data-led engagement.

Jun 2003 – Sep 2007 · 4 yrs 3 mos · Mumbai

• As the Chief Marketing Officer at HDFC Bank, I led the bank's marketing team on the pioneering path of data-led marketing analytics. The bank executed a unique data-based strategy based on automating the bank’s marketing environment, which led to huge improvements & ROI in cross-sell and up-sell rates. HDFC Bank was, in fact, the first bank in India to automate its entire marketing processes for cross-selling and successfully increase the number of products held per customer by a substantial number. HDFC Bank is possibly the only bank in India to have set up a Customer Intelligence Unit (CIU) that focuses on data analytics focused on customers.
• As CMO, I spearheaded a significant transformation at HDFC Bank, shifting the marketing function from traditional communications to an analytics-driven model. This required creating a new mindset around data analytics, which was novel then. To achieve buy-in, I influenced senior stakeholders by demonstrating the business impact of data-driven marketing and securing budgets for tools and talent.
• I completely rewired the Marketing team from being specialists in communication to becoming Analytical marketing partners for the Assets, Liabilities & Credit card teams.
• A vital part of this journey involved coaching the marketing team and developing their analytical skills when talent was scarce. I led strategic hiring efforts and upskilled the existing team, growing a data-centric culture that significantly improved cross-sell and up-sell rates. Creating the Customer Intelligence Unit (CIU) and integrating the Gartner top-quadrant solution, Unica played a pivotal role in automating processes, driving ROI, and personalizing customer engagement.
• The success of this transformation relied heavily on change management, building cross-functional collaboration, and continuously coaching the team to embrace the data-driven approach. This strategy has been institutionalized and continues to drive results for the bank.

Oct 1999 – Jun 2003 · 3 yrs 8 mos · Mumbai Area, India

• As Head of marketing, the Role involved creating and managing Customer experience management programs to drive both new customer acquisition and increasing value from existing customers. Relaunched a powerful Loyalty program based on Analytical insights from shopping behavior.
• As Head of Marketing for Shoppers’ Stop (one of India’s leading Department store retail chains), my team was responsible for creating a unique & vibrant loyalty program called First Citizen which is a unique Indian case study on loyalty marketing. My team was also responsible for creating a hugely successful Customer Experience strategy for Shoppers’ Stop which culminated in a unique 3-month festival called 7 Wonders of the world which delivered large increases in footfall & ticket size. I was an active member of the Intercontinental group of department stores (IGDS) and was invited by IGDS to share experiences for a variety of Retail conferences.. Establishing a winning loyalty program called "First Citizen" was a key highlight. Also creating a very unique initiative called the "Seven wonders of the world" allowed me to experience "Customer experience management" before the term was coined!
• A critical aspect of my role involved coaching and mentoring the marketing team, fostering a high-performance culture that embraced innovation and analytics. My leadership helped transform Shoppers’ Stop into a major player in the Indian retail market, making the company a recognized name in loyalty marketing.

Dec 1996 – Nov 1999 · 2 yrs 11 mos · Bangalore

• Responsible for the launch of Britania's dairy product business.Led a cross-functional team responsible for product development resulting in the successful launch of ‘Britannia Cheese’ and Flavoured milk in 1997; launch exceeded all the target objectives and Britannia Cheese was a Rs.25 crore franchise with a 35% share of market volume within a year of the launch. Strong brand management skills developed during this stint. Deep expertise in quantitative & qualitative market research.

Jun 1994 – Dec 1996 · 2 yrs 6 mos · Mumbai

• Marico Industries Ltd.
• Top Indian consumer goods company June 1994 to Dec. 1996
• Brand Manager – Saffola
• Managed the portfolio for 'Saffola', which is amongst the top Indian cooking oil brands
• International Marketing
• Responsible for all International marketing initiatives. Marico export business was valued at US $ 2 million in 1995-96.
• Was selected consistently to be a part of the Task force for Strategic Business planning process for Marico's overall business.
• International Business and Brand Management Professional with Strategic and Cross-Functional Expertise
• During my tenure with Marico, I was part of the team responsible for expanding international business operations, a strategic & new business unit. I crafted rigorous, data-driven country entry plans, each rooted in a lot of country knowledge through both primary & secondary sources.
• As an early-career member of Marico’s Strategic Business Planning (SBP) initiative, I was part of a cross-functional task force that shaped the company’s five-year growth strategy. This unique opportunity allowed me to work closely with senior leaders, including the CFO and functional heads. Working with senior leaders early in my career gave me insight into business and confidence that I was thinking in the right direction.
• I later transitioned from my international role to becoming Brand Manager for Saffola, where I focused on driving brand growth and building consumer trust in a competitive health and wellness space. So, this combination of International business and brand management has given me a valuable combination of commercial rigor and brand management process.

Oct 1992 – May 1994 · 1 yr 7 mos · Mumbai Area, India

• Pepsi Foods Ltd. October 1992 to May 1994
• Assistant Manager – Exports
• Global sourcing
• Key accountability for executing all Pepsi export business from Western India. Developed and implemented a US$ 4 million beverage glass bottle export program.
• Joint venture
• Worked closely with the Director (Exports) and PepsiCo International in establishing a US$ 22 million joint venture for manufacturing PET resin.

Jan 1991 – Jan 1992 · 1 yr · Mumbai Area, India

• First company after my MBA, pre placement offer! Dream come true!
• Worked closely in the International business team
• Part of a task force that launched ‘Ariel’ detergent in India.