HR Movements: 16 Jan, 2017

1.

Kellogg India appoints Rohit Kumar as CHRO

Kumar was earlier director - business HR, Pharma & Consumer Healthcare, at Sanofi. 

Moving from the pharmaceutical industry into FMCG, Sanofi’s director - business HR, Pharma & Consumer Healthcare, Rohit Kumar has recently joined Kellogg India as the director HR (CHRO). Kumar, who joined Kellogg on 28 December, is based out of Mumbai and will be responsible for heading HR for the India market.

His new role at Kellogg entails enabling the company to grow further taking it to the next level in the market by energising the workforce, identifying the required capabilities and putting forth compelling plans ensuring that they are executed well.

Speaking of his new role, Kumar says, “Kellogg currently has around 60 per cent of share in the Indian breakfast category, where a lot of action is also happening with new players coming in. So it’s going to be an interesting journey. We need to shape the organisation to take on the challenges, analyse capabilities and gear up for the market.”

Kumar, a management graduate from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, began his career with Apollo Tyres in 1996 and then moved to Gillette as the manager-HR in 1998. He then switched to the telecom sector, joining Vodafone as the head-HR, Rajasthan in 2004. He grew through ranks at Vodafone and was elevated as the head-global talent & people capability in 2008. Growing further, he left Vodafone in 2014 as the AVP - human resources (HRBP-technology), post which he joined Sanofi.

After working with Gillette back in 1998, his comeback to FMCG with Kellogg is an interesting move. In his own words, “The excitement of the HR profession is that it is industry agnostic in some sense, and if you have the opportunity to work cross-industry, it helps build new perspectives and learn a lot of new things.”

2.

Freecharge takes away Snapdeal’s L&D head, Mayank Kapoor

Kapoor has joined as head-HR. The company hopes to further its aggressive talent acquisition strategy with this key new appointment.

Freecharge, a digital wallet company has roped in Mayank Kapoor as head-HR. He has moved in from Snapdeal, where he was director-HR heading the L&D function and the Snapdeal Academy for the last 20-odd months.

In an official communique, Sudeep Tandon, chief business officer, FreeCharge shares how employee and talent base have been the keys for product innovations and growth at this new-age company.

He says, “Human resource management is the chief enabler to further build on this growth. Kapoor and his team will play a primary part in our growth story.”

Kapoor, a hotel management graduate from IHM, Pusa, New Delhi started his career in the hospitality industry as lobby manager at Park Hotel, New Delhi in 2000, and spent three year in his first job. In 2003, he moved to the business process services industry as manager-training with IBM Daksh.

In his career spanning 16 years, Kapoor has delved into multiple aspects of the human resources function, such as people development, behavioural & leadership training, talent management & transformation.

He has worked across sectors starting with hospitality to IT, ITES , telecommunications & e-commerce. He spent a large part of his career with Aircel in the learning & development function. He joined Aircel as head - learning systems & processes in 2009, and was elevated as Head – L&D (North & West) in 2013.

Kapoor completed his postgraduation in human resource management from XLRI in 2014 and a future leaders’ programme from Harvard Business School, in 2015.

3.

Accenture’s Jayesh Pandey joins PwC as partner

Pandey transitions from a talent-focussed role at Accenture into a larger business-focussed one at PwC.

Jayesh Pandey, managing director- strategy, talent and organisation, Accenture has moved into a business role at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). He has joined as partner-customer consulting , thus transitioning from a talent-focussed role into a business role.

An engineering graduate, Pandey completed his postgraduation in marketing & operations from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, in 2000. After completing his engineering in 1994, he started his career as the executive-corporate quality, at Godrej GE Appliances.

In 1998, he quit Godrej GE Appliances to join a business management course at IIM-B. After this, he joined Accenture in 2000, where he stayed for over sixteen years handling talent and leadership building.

Additionally, he was the Leadership Centre of Excellence APAC lead at Accenture. He was also a member of the Leadership Business Council. He headed the Accenture Management Consulting - Sales & Customer Service practice, and was responsible for its stability and growth in 2013. He was also the lead for the health & public service business in 2014 for Accenture Strategy.

With over 19 years of experience across Indian and global MNCs, Pandey specialises in sales transformation, leadership development, operating model and organisational design.

Having worked with C-suite executives in metals, telecom, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and industrial equipments, he brings with him a rich experience to develop and implement business transformation strategies.

Hence, with his versatile experience and strong leadership development capabilities, Pandey will now take up a larger role at PwC, leading the customer consulting practice for the company.