S ‘Venky’ Venkatesh is a senior Group CHRO profile with 38 years of proven expertise in Human Resources leadership across multinational corporations, India-origin conglomerates, consulting, and private equity.
For over 25 years, he successfully served as Group CHRO directly reporting to the Chairperson of the enterprise – trusted as a Group Board/Executive Committee(ExCom) member, driving large-scale transformation, governance, and people strategy at the conglomerate/group level.
Career Highlights
■ RPG Enterprises (2014–2025): Over 11 years as President – Group HR and Member – Group Management Board, driving people strategy for the USD 5 billion conglomerate with 40,000+ employees across 7 companies and operations in 100+ countries. Under his leadership, RPG was consistently ranked among India’s Best Employers.
■ Previous Group Leadership Roles: Served as President/Group CHRO in major conglomerates:
▸ Vedanta: USD 18 billion, former LSE listed company( in the FTSE 100)
▸ Arvind: Large textile & fashion conglomerate
▸ BPL Innovision: Then India’s largest telecom group
■ Early Career: Began with ITC (BAT Plc subsidiary), spending nearly a decade in operational and leadership HR roles. Later served as HR Director – India/Middle East at PowerGen Plc, a leading British energy major.
■ Entrepreneurial Venture: Founder & CEO of Svanishta, a strategic advisory firm partnering with private equity funds and mid-to-large enterprises as a CEO/Board Advisor.
Key Areas of Expertise
- Strategic HR Leadership & Board Advisory: Extensive NRC/Board experience with listed companies, advising on governance, compensation/rewards, succession, and enterprise HR strategy.
- Transformation & Organizational Development: Expertise in large-scale leadership development, organizational development (OD), talent management, and culture transformation.
- Employee Engagement & Happiness Framework: Renowned for creating and sustaining one of the world’s largest employee engagement models, built on a unique Happiness Framework, a global first.
- Leadership Hiring & Talent Mobility: Deep track record in CXO-level leadership hiring and enabling leadership mobility across businesses and geographies.
- Integration & HR Architecture: Proven ability to knit diverse businesses under a unified HR architecture and strong cultural binders.
- Digital HR & Future-Ready People Strategy: Established and driven enterprise-wide digital HR initiatives, ensuring agility and business alignment.
A global leader and passionate people champion, S Venky Venkatesh is recognized for placing HR and employee primacy at the heart of business transformation. His consulting practice now helps organizations achieve sustained growth by aligning culture, leadership and talent strategy with long-term business goals.
Thought Leadership & Recognition
■ Speaker & Writer: Active and much sought-after speaker at industry forums. Contributor on LinkedIn and business magazines, writing off-the-beaten-track perspectives that challenge conventional management and HR thinking. Focus areas include leadership, talent, governance, and family/founder businesses.
■ Awards & Accolades: Honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards from Business World and The Economic Times, and recipient of Pragati’s ‘People Leader’ Award
■ Author: Wrote the futuristic mythological thriller Unmanifest | 428,798 A.D. | Story of Kalki, published on Amazon.
