Our leadership team

Giridhar GV

Executive Vice President- Global Human Resources

Giridhar (Giri) is the Executive Vice President – Global Human Resources at HGS. In his role, he is responsible for managing the entire employee life-cycle in the organization, crafting HR strategies to drive business outcomes, driving a strong culture and Leadership succession planning, to support the business objectives of HGS.

Giri has close to three decades of work experience spanning across manufacturing, hospitality, BPM, and professional services industries. He has multi-functional and varied industry experience, ranging from start-up operations to setting up a large captive global delivery services centre. He has earlier worked with Indian Hotels Company Ltd (Taj Group of Hotels), [24]7.ai, and EY. His last stint was with EY, where he held senior leadership positions such as COO for EY’s Global Deliver Services in India and as GDS Global Talent Leader.

Giri has a post graduate diploma in Human Resource Management and is a passionate leadership coach. He has coached / mentored several leaders. He is an avid reader and also writes short blogs as a hobby.

Srinivas Palakodeti

Global CFO

Srinivas Palakodeti, fondly called Pala, spear-heads our Finance function across all global locations and subsidiaries. An integral member of our Global Executive Council, he plays a key role in Mergers & Acquisitions strategy and execution.

Pala has a long association with the Hinduja Group, handling versatile assignments and diverse roles in the Group Companies – Ashok Leyland Investments Services, Hinduja TMT Ltd., IndusInd Bank and IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd. Prior to joining HGS, he was working as the Executive Vice President – Strategy for the Hinduja Group. Pala has also served as the CFO of companies like IMCL, Sahara One Media and Entertainments Ltd and Sakal Papers Ltd.

He brings with him 21 years of rich industry experience with cross functional capabilities in operations, project planning & implementation, deal structuring and investor relations.

Pala holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and a Bachelors degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi.

Narasimha Murthy

President, HGS Americas

Narasimha Murthy is responsible for Strategic Initiatives in M&A, New Markets, New Product Development, Technology, as well as Risk Management, Finance and Corporate Governance in Americas. He has been a key member of HGS’ Global Leadership team for the past 11 years.

During his time with HGS, Murthy has held a number of roles including Business Development, Business Transition, Delivery and Planning. In a career spanning 20 years, Murthy has been associated with organizations like Datapro, GTL, PCL, and Larsen & Toubro. He has been instrumental in successfully transitioning complex off shore projects in Telecom and Health care to India. Murthy holds a degree in Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai and a post-graduate from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kolkata.

Pushkar Misra

CEO & President HGS Philippines

Pushkar Misra is President and Chief Executive Officer of HGS Philippines and leads the organization across HGS’ eight Philippines sites.

Pushkar has over 27 years of experience in the industry, 18 years of which has been with the Hinduja Group in various capacities and functions, including investment banking, project management, business planning and development and corporate finance. He specializes in project planning and implementation. Prior to joining HGS, Pushkar was the CEO of Hinduja Global’s Media Commerce and E-Commerce businesses in India.

Pushkar holds a B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur India and an MBA from the Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmadabad, India.

Ramesh Gopalan

President Healthcare and Head of India Business

Ramesh heads the HGS Healthcare business vertical and is responsible for driving business value by strengthening partnerships and delivering excellence to healthcare clients. He also leads the India business, managing both domestic and international clients for HGS in this geography.

In a career spanning over two decades, he has extensively worked in research, healthcare and outsourcing. Ramesh comes with significant knowledge in client servicing, transition management and operations.

In his previous roles, he has been involved in building successful organizations. Prior to HGS, Ramesh worked with Accenture, Deloitte Consulting and Infosys BPO. He joined HGS from Gridstone Research, where he was co-founder and country head for India.

Ramesh has a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

Subramanya C

Global CTO and CEO – HGS MENA

Subramanya is responsible for the Technical Services Group at HGS. He is an expert in Information Technology and Information Security, and is responsible for implementing, maintaining and monitoring world class technology and information security across the organization.

Subramanya has over 20 years of experience in the technology domain across various industries and handles various aspects of conceptualizing and commissioning of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and other IT Enabled Services operations including transition of projects across our global facilities.

Subramanya is an Engineering graduate in Computer Science from MEI Group of Institutions, India and has undergone short term courses in Customer Support and Finance from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, India.

Venkatesh Korla

President and CEO of HGS Digital

Venkatesh has provided expert consultation on digital strategies and solutions for Global 1000 companies, healthcare institutions, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. He has over 25 years of experience in the digital marketing space as a technology consultant and executive. His knowledge and experience with digital strategies across multiple industries makes him a sought-after consultant and advisor. By founding Element Solutions, which is now doing business as HGS Digital, he has built a company that provides strategic consulting, technology platform selection, design, and implementation services. Through HGS Digital’s portfolio of services – encompassing digital customer experience, data and analytics, marketing tech, intelligent automation, and cloud – he is helping many of the world’s leading brands define and achieve their digital transformational goals.

Andrew Kokes

Executive Vice President, Global Head of Marketing

Andrew leads HGS’s global marketing strategy and execution, including product planning, brand positioning and vertically targeted growth Andrew leads global marketing strategy and execution for HGS, including product planning, brand positioning, and vertically targeted growth activities. He has over 20 years of experience as a B2B marketing executive, focused on generating revenue through strategic solutions development, product management, and positioning of industry innovations.

Andrew has been in the customer experience and contact management industry since 1997, focused on global sourcing solutions in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, the Philippines, and India. Andrew is one of the key developers of early social CRM offerings to drive online conversion and web retention, recognized by Frost & Sullivan with an innovation award and by Nelson Hall as leading the industry with market share adoption.  Andrew has been a member of the Nashville 2-1-1 board of advisors, Nashville Healthcare Council, and is an alumnus of Hastings College.

Andrew is one of the key developers of early Social CRM offerings to drive Andrew contributes thought leadership articles to Forbes magazine on digital customer experiences (CX), analytics, automation, and artificial intelligence.

Anthony Joseph

President, Human Resources

As the Global Head of Human Resources, Anthony is responsible for developing, recommending, implementing and leading human resources strategy and policy in support of the Business Objectives of HGS. He implements our operational and strategic goals by providing a fully integrated and effective human resources service.

Anthony guides the development of our structured Recruitment Process and our comprehensive Training and Development Programme. He has commendable expertise and substantial interest in managing change in a fast moving business environment.

In his illustrious career spanning 25 years, he has initiated and implemented HR best practices across global corporations like Deloitte Consulting, G.E. Plastics, Convergys and NSL Group. He has directly and indirectly been responsible for recruitment of over 10,000 employees across Information Technology (IT), Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS) and Engineering & Manufacturing sectors.

Anthony is a Post Graduate in Personnel Management and Human Resources from XLRI, Jamshedpur and a Bachelor’s degree in commerce from St Xavier’s College, Calcutta. As an opinion leader in the ITeS sector, he is a speaker and mentor at NASSCOM & CII forums.

Arpita Sen

Executive Vice President – Global Legal and Compliance

As Executive Vice President – Global Legal and Compliance at HGS, Arpita Sen is responsible for the Legal and Compliance functions globally.

Arpita has over 25 years of rich professional experience as a General Counsel and Advisor across a wide range of industries including Financial Services and IT/ITES. Prior to joining HGS, she worked for US-based multi-national companies like Qualcomm and AOL as well as Indian companies such as Exide Life Insurance Company Limited, Mindtree and ING Vysya Life as General Counsel. She has also run her independent legal practice and worked with one of the oldest and leading law firms, Mulla & Mulla Craigie, Blunt & Caroe.

Arpita is a graduate from National Law School, Bangalore and was awarded the British Council Chevening Scholarship Advanced course in Corporate Laws and Documentation from College of Law, York, England. She has also authored and co-authored various segments of the India Investment Manual, Banking Year Book and India Employment Manual – Asia Law & Practice.

Partha DeSarkar

Global CEO

Partha DeSarkar is the Chief Executive Officer of HGS and leads the organization across all its geographies. He is also an Executive Director of the HGS Board of Directors.

Partha has more than 25 years of experience in customer service and operations across industries like Banking, Financial Services and Health Insurance. Prior to joining HGS, Partha has worked with Deloitte Consulting, GE Capital International Services and Bank of America.

Partha holds a post-graduate degree in Management from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, and a Masters degree in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai. He has also done his PhD in Strategic Management at IIT Delhi.

Shilpa Sinha Harsh

Sr. Vice President – Global Corporate Communications, CSR and D&I

Shilpa Sinha Harsh heads the Global Corporate Communications, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) teams at HGS. Her key responsibility is to strengthen the HGS brand across strategic areas such as media and industry relations, employee communications, digital communications, corporate branding, recruitment marketing, community relations and diversity & inclusion.

Shilpa brings nearly 20 years of experience in corporate communications, corporate marketing, sales enablement and talent acquisition branding, with core strengths in driving integrated marketing campaigns across geographies. Prior to joining HGS, Shilpa headed the Marketing & Communications function for [24]7.ai India and was part of the India Management team. Her earlier leadership stints have included with Accenture, Adfactors PR and LinOpinion, where she has handled strategic communication campaigns.

Shilpa holds a Bachelor of Arts (English Honors) degree from the Delhi University, India and PGDM – Advertising and Communications from National Institute of Advertising, Delhi, India.

Natarajan Radhakrishnan

Global CIO

As President and Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) at HGS, Natarajan Radhakrishnan (Nat) is responsible for managing Enterprise IT and Automation, fostering innovation across the organization and developing new industry-oriented solutions.

Nat has over 29 years of industry experience in diverse areas such as investment banking, information technology, consulting, solution/ IP development and business development. His core strengths are in aligning business and IT initiatives, change management and digital business transformation. Prior to joining HGS, Natarajan was engaged in Public-Private-Partnership initiatives with two of the Indian State Governments in the Healthcare and Transportation sectors. He has also held senior management positions in organizations like IBM, Capgemini, Cognizant and Deutsche Bank group.

Nat is a Science graduate and also holds a PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad and a CFA degree. He is a member of the national advisory committee of Chartered Institute for Securities & Investments (CISI), a non-profit educational body promoted by members of London Stock Exchange.

Narendra Singh

Senior Vice President & Company Secretary

Narendra Singh is the Senior Vice President & Company Secretary at HGS. In this role, he heads the Corporate Secretarial Function and provides corporate secretarial support to HGS and all its subsidiaries globally.

Narendra has over 25 years of experience in handling corporate secretarial matters with publicly-listed companies. Prior to joining HGS, he worked with Wockhardt Limited, Aditya Birla Group, Cairn India, GMR Infrastructure and Polaris Software Lab Pvt. Ltd.

Narendra is a fellow member of the Institute of Company Secretary of India (ICSI). He holds a Bachelor and Post Graduate Degree in Law from Delhi University. He has written many articles that have been published in journals by the ICSI, Corporate Law Reporter and Corporate Professionals, and has been a regular speaker at the ICSI.

Bhumika Batra

Ms. Bhumika Batra is a law graduate, a qualified company secretary and a fellow member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. She is a recipient of scholarship from London School of Economics. She is a Partner of Crawford Bayley & Co., one of the oldest law firms in India. She possesses over 15 years of experience in regulatory and legal practice, specializing in corporate law.

She has co-authored the book “Treatise on Company Law” in 2014. She is a regular feature writer in India Business Law Journal. She has also contributed in various other writings, like Company Law Ready Reckoner, Transfer and Transmission of Shares – A treatise, Asia Business Law Journal, etc.

She sits as an independent director on the board of Jyothy Laboratories Limited, Sharp India Limited, Hinduja Tech Limited, Repro India Limited, Kancor Ingredients Limited.

Anil Harish

Mr. Anil Harish has B.A., LL.B., and LL.M. (USA) degrees. He is an Advocate and is a partner of D.M. Harish & Co., a well-known Firm of Advocates and he possesses over thirty-five years of experience in legal practice, specializing in Corporate Law, Income-tax, FEMA and property matters. He is a member of Board of Directors of several companies.

Mr. Anil Harish is member of the Advisory Board of All India Business Council, was Executive Vice President of the Society of Indian Law firms (SILF), and was member of the Managing Committee of Indian Merchants Chamber, ITAT Bar Association and Chamber of Income Tax Consultants. He has written several articles on Legal and Tax matters.

Dr. Ganesh Natarajan

Dr. Ganesh Natarajan is Executive Chairman and Founder of SF World, a platform for Digital Start-ups, Skills and Social Ventures in the country. He is also Founder of Global Talent Track and Skills Alpha and co-founder of two fndo-US Joint Ventures – Kalzoom Advisors and the Centre for Al and Advanced Analytics. He is Global Board Director and Chairman of the India Board of Social Venture Partners and Chairman of Pune City Connect, a unique collaborative platform that enables corporations to work with the Government on social and city innovation. He is also on the Board of Principal Asset Management Private Limited, Fino Payment Bank and S P Robotics Works and some digital and social start-ups. He has been Chairman of NASSCOM AND NASSCOM Foundation and various National Committees of CII and President of the HBS Club of India.

Ganesh has a Masters in Industrial Engineering from NITIE, PhD from IIT Bombay and AMP from Harvard Business School. He has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of IIT Bombay and NITIE and has been recognized by EY and the Asia Pacific HR Forum for excellence in entrepreneurship and people-centric leadership. He has completed two successful CEO tenures over twenty-five years at APTECH and Zensar Technologies. Harvard Business School has written and teaches two case studies on Dr. Ganesh Natarajan and his success through Vision Communities.

Sudhanshu Tripathi

Sudhanshu Tripathi is a member of Hinduja Group’s apex Global Leadership. Apart from collective leadership responsibilities, he oversees: i) Board Governance, effectiveness and assessment process ii) Group Human Capital Strategy & Execution iii) Group leadership lifecycle. He is a Director on Boards of Hinduja Leyland Finance Ltd., Hinduja Ventures Ltd. and Ashley Aviation Ltd.

He is a seasoned HR professional with over 35 years work experience; 22 of them at leadership level. He has had direct exposure of Telecom, IT, Engineering, Metal, Power, Financial Sources, Media and other diversified domains and brings a strong business perspective to his work. He has worked as a shop floor Engineer, IT Specialist, Management Development Professional before choosing HR as career. He specialises in very large and diversified multi location conglomerates. Prior to joining Hinduja Group in 2008, he has worked with (a) Essar Group – Leading HR function as Chairman of Group HR Council, (b) Reliance Communications as a member of the top leadership team responsible for design, build up and HR process institutionalisation, (c) Usha Martin Group as Head – Corporate HR, and (d) Tata Steel, at various levels. He has received many awards, the most recent one being Business World Award for outstanding contribution to the field of HR. He has been a Member of Eastern Regional Council, All India Mgmt. Association and has also been associated with FICCI, EFJ and Rotary Club. He has taught at XLRI, Indian Institute of Coal Management and other Management Schools as Visiting Faculty.

Adam Foster

CEO HGS Europe

Adam Foster joined as the CEO for HGS Europe Operations in 2017. Foster  is responsible for the business’ expansion and growth strategy into key European markets. He will also be a key member of HGS’ Global Advisory Board and participate in corporate strategy.  Foster joins the HGS team with a strong background in the global BPM industry. He was the CEO at Merchants, the Customer Management outsourcing company, before moving into a Group Executive role with Dimension Data, a part of the Japanese NTT Group that acquired Merchants in 1997.  In his over 15-years stint at Dimension Data, Foster played a key role working as their Senior Board member, interacting with several joint venture outsourcers around the world.

Tim Schuh

President – Digital Strategy

As part of company’s Global leadership team and reporting to the Board & CEO, the position will drive strategic direction of the company to scale its new Digital Capabilities in the Customer Experience and Employee Experience transformation area. As a part of the HGS Digital organization, the CX Optimization team led by Tim will be a part of the think tank, along with the HGS Digital CEO and CIO to lead and implement change for HGS, in line with what is happening in the BPM industry. Digital Strategy will be responsible to bring on board newer technologies in area of intelligent automation, analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning and integrating these new service offering/capabilities into the more traditional CRM and back-office capabilities of HGS. This position will have joint accountability and commensurate authority, along with the HGS Digital CEO, to not only manage the R&D lab for innovation, but to also see commercially feasible ideas through to the implementation stage, with defined outcomes (revenues or savings) within agreed timelines and budgets.

Tom Hricik

President and Head of Business Development, North America

Tom brings with him more than 30 years of experience in sales, client management, P&L management, operations and consulting. He is responsible for the North American team to meet growth objectives, working with both existing accounts as well as with the new logo team to build a healthy pipeline and win new business that is profitable and sustainable.

For the past 17-years, Tom has served in a variety of business and sales leadership roles at Conduent, a business process services companies, where he drove collaboration with internal and external partners to maximize the value of the BPO, consulting and technology services for clients. Tom is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with undergraduate and graduate degrees focused in information systems and industrial relations.

Sreepathy Viswanathan

Senior Vice President – M&A and Integration

Sree is the global head of M&A and Integration at HGS. He is responsible for identification of targets and partnerships aligned with HGS strategy, completion of due diligence, source funding, negotiation of deal terms, integration planning and execution to deliver targeted results for initial 2 years post closure of deal and relationship management with key stakeholders to achieve the full potential of synergies in a transaction. He joined HGS in 2005 and has led several acquisitions and integrations since then in North America, UK and India.

He brings in 20 years of comprehensive experience in M&A, JVs, Partnerships, business turnaround management, strategic planning and deployment. Sree has worked with Tata’s prior joining HGS as head of Strategic Planning, Finance and has set up several joint ventures with leading corporations in North America, Europe and Asia. He has also served in Strategy, Project Management and turnaround assignments with Epson and Siemens.

Sree completed his MBA with High Honors from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration degree from IBS India and a CFA charter from ICFAI University. He is a rank holder and also completed his Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering with Distinction from Bangalore University, India.

He is based out of USA and works alternatively in our Lisle and NY offices. Sree loves to spend his free time with family, nature trekking, biking, gardening, tennis, reading and travelling to explore new cultures.

Partha DeSarkar

Partha De Sarkar is the Chief Executive Officer of HGS and leads the organization across all its geographies. He is also an Executive Director of the HGS Board of Directors.

Partha has more than 25 years of experience in customer service and operations across industries like Banking, Financial Services and Health Insurance. Prior to joining HGS, Partha has worked with Deloitte Consulting, GE Capital International Services and Bank of America.

Partha holds a post-graduate degree in Management from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, and a Masters degree in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai. He has also done his PhD in Strategic Management at IIT Delhi.

Santanu Nandi

Senior Vice President – Global Business Excellence, HGS

Santanu Nandi heads HGS’ Global Business Excellence function that manages the areas of process design, compliance and re-engineering, and drives impact for clients, employees and organizational stakeholders.

Santanu has been associated with the Contact Center and BPM industry right from its global inception. He has previously worked with industry leaders like Accenture, Convergys (later acquired by Concentrix) and GE Capital. He has extensive experience in developing and managing profitable service operations while delivering excellence. His experience spans three decades in various industries such as BPM, Consumer Finance and Engineering & IT, cutting across various roles like sales, business unit management, business excellence, service operations, solution development and business transition.

Santanu has a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) degree from SGSITS, Indore and a Post-Graduate Degree in Management from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow, a premier management school in India.

Yashodhan Madhusudan Kale

Yashodhan Madhusudan Kale (“Mr. Kale”), he is FCA (England and Wales), a former President of ICAI (1995-96) and was a Member of the International Accounting Standards Board (formerly called IASC) as India representative. Mr. Kale has considerable experience and expertise in professional areas including Corporate Governance, Accounting, Auditing and Corporate Laws.  Mr. Kale is the Group President – Corporate Governance & Development of Hinduja Group Limited for over thirteen years. He is currently a Director of IndusInd Bank Limited and a Member of its Audit Committee. He was a Director of reputed listed and other companies within and outside the Hinduja Group. Mr. Kale was a Member of several committees appointed by the Government, Regulatory bodies and Chamber of Commerce, viz. RBI, NSE, SEBI, Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, etc.