CEO panel to pick future leaders in Economic Times Young Leaders
The Economic Times Young Leaders is India's largest talent quest to identify the top young managers. After three rounds of rigorous tests, aspirants will come face to face with some of India Inc.’s top CEOs. We present to you the jury for the fifth edition of The Economic Times Young Leaders programme.
Deep Kalra, Group CEO, MakeMyTrip.com
Deep Kalra founded online travel company MakeMyTrip.com in 2005. Today, it is the largest travel company in the country. In August 2010, MakeMyTrip became the fi rst Indian travel company to list overseas through an initial public offering on Nasdaq. The company has been consistently recognised among the 'best companies to work for' in India. Having steered the MakeMyTrip business as CEO since its inception in 2000, Deep took on the role of group chief executive office in August 2013, to focus on strategy, merger & acquisitions and international businesses.
Gautam Kumra, Managing Director, McKinsey & Co., India
Gautam Kumra is an expert in the area of CEO leadership. He is the founder of the McKinsey Leadership Institute and convenes the CEO Bower Forum in Asia. These forums provide a platform for peer learning amongst CEOs and cover a range of issues encompassing leading self and others, and leading business and change. Based in New Delhi, Kumra has worked with about 100 CEOs across India and the region, and serves as lead faculty for McKinsey’s senior partners on CEO counselling.
Kalpana Morparia,CEO, JP Morgan, South and Southeast Asia
Kalpana Morparia is a member of JP Morgan’s Asia Pacifi c management committee. She also serves as an independent director on the boards of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Philip Morris International Inc., and Hindustan Unilever, besides being a non-executive director on JPMorgan Services India. She is also a member of the governing board of Bharti Foundation. Prior to joining JP Morgan India, Morparia served in ICICI Group since 1975.
Pramit Jhaveri, CEO, Citi India
Pramit Jhaveri is responsible for all of Citi's businesses in the country. Citi India serves close to 2.5 million customers ranging from India's top corporate houses, multinationals, SMEs, self-employed entrepreneurs, households and individuals. During the last fi ve years, Citi has been widely recognised as the best performing foreign bank in the country across consumer and corporate banking. It has grown its business steadily and shown a consistent growth in profi tability. Jhaveri joined Citi India in 1987 and his 30 years of banking experience spans multiple areas of the industry.
Sanjiv Mehta, MD, HUL
Besides leading India’s largest FMCG company, Hindustan Unilever, Sanjiv Mehta also leads parent Unilever’s business in South Asia as executive vice president. Mehta has been with Unilever for nearly 25 years and for the last 15 years he has led the multinational’s businesses in different parts of the world. Mehta has done his B Com, chartered accountancy (India) and also completed his advanced management programme (Harvard Business School).
Harsh Mariwala, Chairman, Marico
Besides leading Marico, Harsh Mariwala is also the CMD of skin care clinic chain Kaya. Over the past three decades, he has transformed a traditional commodities-driven business into a leading consumer products and services company in the beauty and wellness space. Mariwala's entrepreneurial drive and passion for innovation led him to establish Marico Innovation Foundation in 2003. The foundation acts as a catalyst to fuel innovation in India. He started ASCENT in 2012, a not-for-profi t expression of his passion to create a unique trust based peer-to-peer platform for high-potential growth-stage entrepreneurs.
Vineet Nayar, Founder Chairman, Sampark Foundation
Vineet Nayar, former CEO at HCL Technologies, founded his philanthropy venture Sampark Foundation along with his wife Anupama. Nayar architected HCL Technology’s transformation from $700-million business in 2005 to a $4.7-billion global technology services company with over 85,000 employees across 32 countries in 2013. He is also the author of management book Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down. Sampark Foundation works at enhancing learning outcomes of 3 million children studying in primary schools across Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Ladakh. Nayar currently serves as a senior advisor to McKinsey Leadership Institute and Fortune 1000 companies.
Rajan Anandan, Vice President, Southeast Asia and India, Google
Rajan Anandan is responsible for Google’s sales and operations in Southeast Asia and India region. He is focused on expanding the Internet ecosystem in the region, increasing adoption among consumers and businesses, and accelerating innovation. Southeast Asia and India, with over two billion consumers and 500 million Internet users, is the fastestgrowing Internet user base in the world. Anandan joined Google in early 2011. His career includes leadership roles at Dell and McKinsey & Company.
Vanitha Narayanan, Chairman, IBM, India
Vanitha Narayanan took over this leadership position at IBM India in January 2017. Besides helping enable IBM’s global missions, she will also spearhead transformational initiatives for IBM’s global centres of excellence. Having joined IBM in the US in 1987, Narayanan has more than 29 years of experience working with multiple client sets and in several countries. Since 2009, she has been a part of the IBM ISA business, serving in roles such as vice president of sales and distribution and managing partner for global business services.
Shikha Sharma, MD, Axis Bank
Shikha Sharma joined India’s third-largest private sector bank in 2009. As a leader adept at managing change, she has focused on transforming Axis Bank into a bank with strengths across a wide range of corporate and retail banking products. Sharma has more than three decades of experience in the fi nancial sector, having begun her career with ICICI Bank in 1980. Her achievements in the fi nancial sector have received wide recognition. As an acknowledgement of her efforts, Harvard Business School published a case study on managing change at Axis Bank in 2013.