Jan 2021 – Oct 2022 · 1 yr 9 mos · Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

• Working closely with the academic and administrative leadership, I was responsible for driving long-term strategy of all professional programs—spanning Master's in Business Administration, executive education, as well as modularized and laddered programs and micro-credentials that add significant value to individuals, businesses, nations and society.
• As a part of the core leadership team, I was also responsible for strengthening Krea’s vision to be a teaching and research university that defines global benchmarks through interwoven research and experiential learning, while staying true to its core values.

Oct 2020 – Present · 5 yrs 7 mos · Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

• Chennai Mathematical Institute is one of the premier institutions for teaching and research in India—from under-graduate to post-doctoral programs—in Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics and Data Science.
• I work closely with the Director, Dean, Registrar and faculty members of this reputable institute. I support the institution's growth, funding, industry-academia linkages for applied research as well as broad-based relationships with the government, industry and other stakeholders, globally.

Sep 2020 – Present · 5 yrs 8 mos · Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

• Catalincs works as a 360° transformation partner, enabling technology companies reimagine their business, operating and financial models to drive superior business value. We not only provide strategic advisory services—across business, operations, finance, sales and marketing, talent and relationship management—but also work closely with our client leadership teams to implement a blueprint that helps catalyze business value and drive innovation. Backed by a team of practitioners who have incubated, built, nurtured and scaled billion-dollar technology businesses for over two decades, Catalincs acts as true coaches and mentors, enabling clients to navigate disruptions with ease and scale businesses, while sustaining their rich cultural DNA.

Jan 2020 – Jan 2023 · 3 yrs · New Delhi, Delhi, India

• I was one of two industry nominees on the Board of Undergraduate Studies in Engineering and Technology of AICTE, the apex body for technical education in India.

Nov 2018 – Aug 2021 · 2 yrs 9 mos · Greater Chennai Area

• I was a nominee of the Honorable Governor of Tamil Nadu to the Senate of The Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, the supreme academic body responsible for superintending and catalyzing teaching and research across different medical disciplines of study. The University has over 775 affiliated institutions across Medicine, Surgery, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Bio-medical Sciences, Siddha, Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Community Health, among others.

Aug 2018 – Jul 2020 · 1 yr 11 mos · Greater Chennai Area

• I was the President of the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), one of the two oldest chambers of commerce in India. Established in 1836, about a week after the Bombay Chamber of Commerce, MCCI is one of the premier industrial promotion bodies in Southern India. Two World Wars, the Great Depression, India's independence struggle, the so-called Hindu rate of growth, the licence-permit raj, controls on foreign exchange and expansion, the economic liberalization of the 1990s, and the bold, transformative reforms of the current government, MCCI has seen it all.
• In this role, along with the Vice President, Srivats Ram, Managing Director of Wheels India Limited (part of the TVS Group) and the members of the General Committee, I was responsible for (1) driving policy changes to improve the ease of doing business and making the state of Tamil Nadu one of the most attractive destinations for investors (2) enabling networking among member companies for mutual benefit (3) curating events to drive sharing of knowledge, learning and best practices (4) creating an enabling infrastructure for bilateral trade and commercial ties.

Feb 2018 – Present · 8 yrs 3 mos · Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, India

• I am currently on the Strategic Academic Advisory Board of Xavier Institute of Management (XIMB). Consistently ranked among the Top 20 management schools in India, XIMB is one of the most sought after management schools for business management and human resources management.

Sep 2017 – Nov 2020 · 3 yrs 2 mos · Greater Chennai Area

• I was a Director on the Board of Cognizant Foundation, the independent CSR arm of Cognizant. Cognizant firmly believed that corporate actions play a very important role in creating a climate of positive opinion and that giving back to the society is not only an imperative to the company’s growth, but also an earnest reflection of the values it stands for.
• Cognizant Foundation’s vision is to be a model social organization that enables and facilitates the under-privileged, under-served and under-represented sections of the society to access quality education, healthcare and livelihood opportunities.

Jun 2016 – May 2019 · 2 yrs 11 mos · India

• I served as a member of the Governing Academic Council, the highest academic body of the Vellore Institute of Technology (formerly VIT University) for three years. During the three year period, the institution was named the best private engineering institution in India every year by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India. Vellore Institute of Technology offers 20 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate, four integrated and four research programs, and enrolls more than 35,000 students from 50 countries.

Jun 2012 – Jul 2020 · 8 yrs 1 mo · Greater Chennai Area

• I was a part of the National Executive Board of the American Chamber of Commerce (India) for over eight years. During this period, I had the good fortune of being the national Vice Chairman for two terms and the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Chapter for three terms. In these roles, I have helped promote trade and commerce between the two largest democracies of the world, as well as drive public policies with ministries, embassies, consulates and trade promotion bodies.

Jan 2002 – Jan 2013 · 11 yrs

• With the mainstreaming of the Internet and eCommerce, competitor landscape started changing meaningfully with new age companies fiercely positioning themselves as McKinseys of the internet world. During this time, I had the opportunity to incubate this practice with a dedicated team to scan the market and look at trends, work even more closely with industry analysts/sourcing advisors and harness their insights, and also closely monitor competitor strategies and moves.
• This gave us a platform to work closely with all business units as they looked up to this team for insights at a granular level that they could use for their annual strategy and planning, lead generation and client wins, recruiting of a new breed of cross-industry professionals, building out newer service lines like Consulting, Business Process Services, and Infrastructure Services, among others.

Jan 2002 – Jan 2005 · 3 yrs

• When harnessing and codifying institutional knowledge and best practices started gaining ground, I had the opportunity to evangelize and drive the knowledge sharing culture within Cognizant, and build out a networked platform to catalyze this movement. I had the good fortune of being the company's first Chief Knowledge Officer to drive this mammoth exercise in a highly empowered organization.

Aug 1998 – Aug 2017 · 19 yrs

• I joined Cognizant when the company had about 1,000 employees and revenues of about $40 million. I had the good fortune of being a part of the leadership team that saw Cognizant grow to over 300,000 employees with about $17 billion in revenues, and also join the ranks of Fortune 500, Financial Times 500, NASDAQ-100 and S&P 500, to name a few.
• In this role as the company's Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Government and Corporate Affairs, Investor Relations and Communications, I was responsible for a broad range of portfolios, with global and regional responsibilities. These include marketing, influencer relations, market research, communications, knowledge management, and investor relations.

Aug 1998 – Aug 2017 · 19 yrs

• A few months after I joined Cognizant, I was given the opportunity to incubate the Corporate Marketing and Communications portfolio ground-up, focusing primarily on corporate branding, industry analyst and influencer relations, event management, media relations, employee branding and communications, and executive communications.

Apr 1998 – Jul 2020 · 22 yrs 3 mos

• In these roles, I was responsible for the company’s India operations with over 200,000 employees, spread over 13 cities (Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Kochi, Gurgaon, Noida, Mangalore, Mysuru and Ahmedabad). Cognizant is one of the largest private employers in India.

Apr 1998 – May 2007 · 9 yrs 1 mo

• In June 1998, Cognizant went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. While the then CFO was the primary face of the organization with investors, I worked closely with the CFO, CEO and COO and supported them in all our investor outreach and communications. This included managing and communicating to large teams of investors, participating in Tech conferences, working closely with the core team for quarterly earnings and investor outreach, as well as driving innumerable one-on-one meetings with both sell-side and buy-side investors.

Jan 1998 – Jan 2005 · 7 yrs

• In 1998, I had the opportunity to incubate Cognizant Interactive (formerly called Content & Design Services) along with a colleague of mine for many years, kicking off a major trend in the industry. While the initial focus was largely on developing user documentation, online help systems, interactive learning management systems and courseware, very soon we grabbed all kinds of opportunities thrown up by the Internet and e-commerce waves. The team, which included visual designers, information architects, usability engineers, interactive artists, content developers, technical communicators, among others, became one of the most respected in the industry. This team grew to over 10,000 professionals and is arguably among the largest among the peer set. In 2018, Cognizant Interactive was voted among the top agencies in the prestigious "Ad Age Agency Report: Rankings and Analysis". In its debut appearance, Cognizant Interactive was ranked as #3 Digital Agency Network in the world.

Mar 1996 – Apr 1998 · 2 yrs 1 mo · Mumbai Metropolitan Region

• I was with Tata Consultancy Services for a little over two years as a part of their Editorial and Technical Communications group.

Jun 1990 – Mar 1996 · 5 yrs 9 mos · Greater Chennai Area

• I started my career as an academician, teaching English, Journalism and Business and Managerial Communications in two of India’s premier colleges and went on to officiate as the Principal of one of them. During my tenure as an academician, I was a member of the Academic Council of the University of Madras—one of the three oldest universities in independent India.