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Vijay K. Thadani

Co-Founder NIIT Group



Mr Vijay K Thadani is the Co-Founder of NIIT Group and serves as Vice Chairman and Managing Director of NIIT Ltd, a leading Global Talent Development Corporation. He is also the Co-Founder of the not-for-profit NIIT University, established with a vision of being the role model of learning, research, innovation and sustainability for the Knowledge Society.

In the past, Mr Thadani served as President of the Indian IT industry association, MAIT and as Chairman of the National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET), under the aegis of the Quality Council of India.

As an active member of CII, he served as the Chairman of CII Northern Region as also chaired CII’s National Committee on Higher Education and currently serves as the Co-Chair of CII’s Centre of Digital Transformation.

In addition, he served as the Chairman of Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Allahabad, Chairman of the Board of Governors of MN National Institute of Technology, Allahabad and also as a member of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi.

Mr Thadani is currently serving as the Chairman of All India Board of Technician Education constituted by AICTE and is also a member of the Governing Council of All India Management Association (AIMA). He co-chairs the CII Centre for Digital Transformation and serves as an Independent Director on the Board of Triveni Turbine Limited.

Mr Thadani has received the recognition of ‘Distinguished Alumnus” from his alma mater, the premier Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. In addition, he was honoured with the position of ‘Economic Consultant’ to Chongqing, world’s largest city in the People’s Republic of China.


 


P. Rajendran

Joint Managing Director & Co-Founder,

NIIT Limited


Parappil Rajendran, Joint Managing Director of NIIT Ltd., is a member of the core team that developed and brought the organization to its present position of global standing, since its inception in 1981.

He received his degree in Electrical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India in 1974 and joined KELTRON, a nascent electronic products company set up by Govt. of Kerala, where he worked for eight years. During this period he was involved in marketing, product management and sales of electronic industrial products. Later he moved into the domain of electronic automation and control of power stations.

Rajendran also serves on the Board of Management of the not-for-profit NIIT University set up in Neemrana, Rajasthan with the vision of creating the University of the Future built on the foundation of Industry-linked, Technology-based, Research-driven and Seamless learning.

He is also actively engaged with NIIT Foundation, which addresses the skilling and employability needs of youth from the underprivileged segments of the society.

Rajendran has been associated with the apex industry association, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for over a decade.


 

 

Sapnesh Lalla,

Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director,

NIIT Limited


Sapnesh Lalla is the CEO and Executive Director of NIIT Ltd, a global talent development corporation, offering broad-based education and training solutions to corporations, institutions, and individuals in over 30 countries.

Sapnesh has served in NIIT India and USA for over 29 years. He started his journey as a Project Lead in the Learning Content Development Team and over the years, has held various Management and Leadership roles in Product Management, Customer Support, Channel Development, Sales and Support functions. He has worked on a number of critical initiatives including NIIT’s expansion into North America & Europe and has led significant acquisitions including Cognitive Arts and Element K. He was selected to the Managing Director’s Quality Club (MDQC) in 1997 and received the coveted Global Leadership Award in 2001 and 2010. In 2010, he joined the board of NIIT(USA), Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He led the enterprise business of the company outside India and helped create and grow unique solutions in the areas of Learning content, learning administration & learning technologies. Among others, he led the conceptualization and growth of Managed Training Services outsourcing which are now being delivered to many global firms in the Fortune 500.

In 2017, Sapnesh was appointed CEO of NIIT Ltd. Since then, he has passionately driven the digital transformation of the company and the agenda to scale up the business on company’s new NIIT Digital platform.

Sapnesh is an Electronics and Communications Engineer from Bangalore University and received his Executive Education at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.


 

 

Sanjay Mal

Chief Financial Officer,

NIIT Limited


Sanjay is the CFO of NIIT Ltd, a global talent development corporation. He has over three decades of rich experience across various functions in finance. He joined NIIT Ltd in April, 1995, has been associated with the NIIT Group for over two decades and has been responsible for providing strategic direction to the Finance function.

Sanjay’s core expertise lies in Corporate Finance, Treasury, Investor Relations, Large Deals structuring, M&A and New Ventures’ development, Corporate restructuring, Financial Management, Risk Management and Corporate Governance. He has diverse exposure and strong relationships with multiple professional entities, Industry and Govt. bodies and forums, including Banking & Finance fraternity, legal, accounting & tax advisory firms, regulatory bodies.

In the years 2018 and 2019, Sanjay held the full-time role of CFO and the member of Executive Council, in NIIT Technologies Limited (NTL). He made significant contributions to the business growth of NTL and played a key role in divestment of the Company working along with the leadership at NTL and the PE firm. Sanjay re-joined NIIT Limited as EVP & Head-Strategic Finance on February 1, 2020.

As part of the senior management team of NIIT Group, Sanjay has managed and contributed positively to the business growth, by enabling finances, leveraging credible financial relations & branding and managing risks through innovative financial structures and solutions. He has handled cross border and India based divestments. corporate and business restructurings as well as large global business deals successfully, involving finance, commercial, legal, tax, risk management and regulatory aspects.

Sanjay was awarded the membership of “Pathfinder’s Squadron” and was selected into the coveted “Chairman’s Quality Club” – the highest honor at NIIT to recognize NIITians who are acknowledged as the key drivers of quality, speed and innovation in chosen areas within the organization, contributing significantly to growth and image of NIIT.

Sanjay graduated in Commerce from Delhi University and is an alumnus of The Wharton School (Advanced Management Program), University of Pennsylvania, USA.


 

 

Rajan Venkataraman

Chief Digital Officer,

NIIT Limited


Rajan Venkataraman, Chief Digital Officer, NIIT Ltd., is responsible for the digital strategy and transformation of NIIT. He works closely with the CEO and Business leaders, to shape the digital transformation journey of NIIT.

As the Chief Digital Officer, Rajan also heads Learning Science & Technology (LST) – a central division that has been formed with a clear charter to work on Digital Transformation for the entire organization. Rajan is responsible for integrating Learning Sciences and Data Sciences into a platform to deliver the desired future digital business model and superior digital customer experiences.

Rajan started his journey as a Post-Graduate student from NIIT Chennai in 1988 and moved to USA to establish the NIIT Global Technology Arm in 1996. He then went on to become the Chief Technology Officer of NIIT, and drove the design and implementation of NIIT’s innovative Computerdrome facility that provided 24x7 computer labs at major cities in India.

He has worked towards initiating technology transformation at NIIT powered by a strong EduTech team. Under his leadership continuous technical experiments and innovations are undertaken to arrive at new and unique solutions for customers.

He has spearheaded, multiple technology driven business products and solutions, with NIIT.tv and training.com being the latest additions, his other initiatives include - multi-lingual Learning Management System and Cloud Campus.

Rajan’s passion for Data Communications and Networks led him to implement NIIT’s intranet and extranet. Rajan has been recognized with multiple awards for his significant contributions globally.


 

 

Babita Karki

Chief People Officer

NIIT Ltd.


Babita Karki is the Chief People Officer at NIIT Ltd. She has a rich and varied experience of over 31 years spanning across various management and leadership roles in NIIT Ltd. and Coforge (formerly known as NIIT Technologies).

Her portfolio of expertise includes strategic HR, Diversity & Inclusion, culture change, uplifting employee experience, executive hiring, program management, development of learning solutions, project management, and quality assurance.

Babita started her career in 1991 with NIIT’s Career Education Business, and then moved on to the Corporate Learning Group (CLG), where she contributed to diverse roles like Project Manager, Delivery Head, and Process Group Head. She spearheaded NIIT’s process capability enhancement journey and was successful in getting NIIT certified at SEI CMM Level 5, thus making it the first content development facility in the world to have acquired this certification.

She was selected to run the prestigious Strategic HR function for the company globally. In her capacity as Head of Strategic HR, she led the Top-100 program to enhance the Performance Ethic of the organization. During this period, she looked after executive hiring, learning & development of leaders, and succession planning for the organization. As Program Manager of the Chairman’s Quality Club, she was instrumental in implementing key organization development initiatives like Agility, Innovation, NIITians First, Think Customer, and Sustainability, to name a few.

At NIIT Technologies, she led the Global Culture Change program of ‘New Ideas, More Value’, championed the Sustainability charter, led the D&I agenda, supported businesses as their Business HR, led HR Shared Services and Corporate HR, and championed strategic Employer Branding initiatives like Social Media Outreach. She also led Coforge (erstwhile NIIT Technologies) to be certified as a Great Place To Work.

Babita holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics & Computer Science. She has certifications like Internal Audits, Capability Maturity Model and Philip Crosby's Complete Quality Management System, and is a facilitator for Personal Quality Initiative, Leadership Circles, and UYS’s Achieving Superior Service amongst others.

She has been felicitated with NIIT’s Award of Excellence for three consecutive years, following which the prestigious title 'Excellerator' was conferred on her, indicative of her consistent excellence. She has been awarded the membership of Pathfinder’s Squadron. She has also been a recipient of the coveted Chairman's Quality Club (CQC) award that recognizes individuals who have surpassed expectations by going above and beyond.


 

 

Kunal Gupta

Chief Executive & Business Head,

Skills & Careers (SNC), NIIT Ltd.


Kunal Gupta is the Chief Executive & Business Head, Skills & Careers (SNC), NIIT Ltd. Bringing diverse work experience from across sectors spanning mobility, FMCG and clean energy, Kunal has proven leadership, business management and marketing experience across the APAC region.

Prior to joining NIIT, Kunal was the Chief Executive Officer for Faces Canada where he turned around the cosmetics business and made Faces Canada a household name for makeup in India. Before his recent stint at Faces Canada, Kunal launched and led Grab Ventures’s micro-mobility initiative across Indonesia, Phillipines, and Singapore as the Head of Business & Expansion, Grab Wheels.

Before joining Grab Ventures, Kunal did multiple roles at Uber – including launching UberEats operations in Singapore, building out the first center of excellence for handling critical incidents and also leading the marketing for the Transport business for South-east Asia.

Kunal oversaw marketing for P&G Oral-Care business across 9 different countries in the South-east Asia belt before joining Uber. At P&G, Kunal led the turnover of the complex portfolio and launched the entry of the company’s flagship toothpaste in India. He also led business growth for P&G’s acquired business, Wella Professionals Hair-care business for the first time post the acquisition.

Earlier in his career, Kunal led businesses in clean energy and bio-plantation in Africa (Egypt, Kenya and Morocco) and also co-founded 5Shells, a venture on Board Games.

Kunal holds a PGDBM from IIM Bangalore and a B. Tech. from IIT Roorkee.


 

 

Udai Singh

President, Global Products & Solutions and Learning Delivery,

NIIT Limited


Udai is the President, Global Products & Solutions and Learning Delivery at NIIT Limited. He is responsible for NIIT’s key strategic initiatives including incubating StackRoute, StackRoute Labs and specific large customer engagements in India. In his last role as President of the Corporate Learning Business in India his focus has been on conceptualizing and executing NIIT’s strategy to create a multi-modal learning delivery capability through innovations such as StackRoute, an Immersive Learning initiative to create the world’s best Full Stack programmers, NIIT.tv an internet learning portal that brings NIIT’s learning offerings including live programs free to learners in India and Emerging markets, and Training.com an online learning destination for working professionals.

Udai has been involved in the design & implementation of numerous technology enabled learning innovations at NIIT over the years. He helped setup NetVarsity.com one of the world’s earliest online learning portals in 1996, and subsequently evolved this into a Brick-and-Portal model of Blended Education delivery at NIIT in 2002. In 2006, he helped setup NIIT Imperia and brought Executive Management Education from Premier institutes such as IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta to working professionals across India through a unique Synchronous Learning Technology platform. Most recently he conceptualized & deployed India’s first Cloud CampusTM featuring NIIT’s unique Cloud & Collaborative Learning Model.

During the period 2003-06, he was the Head of Global Design, Delivery, and Information Systems (GDD) at NIIT. He was responsible for the design and development of all NIIT Education products and setting the standards for Education Delivery on a global basis. Additionally, he was responsible for all the Systems Integration and Software Applications Development for NIIT’s Education businesses. This involved the development and deployment of mission critical applications across over 700 NIIT centres globally, in addition to the centralized applications deployed at 2 data centres.

Udai did his B.E. in Electrical & Electronics Engineering and M.E. in Electronics & Control from BITS, Pilani. Became the youngest Lecturer at the age of 21 and taught Computer Science courses for a year before joining NIIT in 1990.


 

 

Pradeep Narayanan

President

NIIT Digital and Growth Initiatives


Pradeep Narayanan is the president at NIIT Digital and Growth Initiatives. A post graduate in management from XLRI, Jamshedpur, Pradeep has extensive work experience of 40 years across companies like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Eicher GoodEarth Ltd, NIIT Ltd and [24]7.ai.

Pradeep is considered a pioneer in franchising the education business and is one of the most respected figures in the retail IT education business. He has also held many key management positions in NIIT and was a key member of the leadership team which steered the company management successfully during his 17-year tenure (November 1987 till June 2004).

In his first stint at NIIT, Pradeep was heading NIIT's retail education business in India. He was responsible for scaling NIIT’s IT education business having set up and managed over 1500 education centers delivering education to over half a million students at any point in time. This involved setting up education centers all over the world - right from incorporation of local companies, to hiring people, establishing local partnerships and designing and implementing products and marketing & sales plans and being responsible for the P&L of the business.

After his first stint with NIIT, Pradeep went on to become the Chief Delivery Officer of [24]7.ai, headquartered in Bangalore, one of the leading knowledge process outsourcing firms in India today, where he helped it to scale. He contributed to adding several key customers and new products and services in the company. He has also served as the Head of NIIT Learning Systems Limited (formerly known as MindChampion Learning Systems Limited). Pradeep is also the founder of Admizzionz Campuz, a company engaged in career counselling and admission guidance for colleges in India, since December 2010.


 

 

Bimaljeet Singh Bhasin

President - Enterprise Business India

NIIT Limited


Bimaljeet Singh Bhasin (Bimal) is the President of Enterprise Business India (EBI), NIIT Ltd. Bimal brings with him a diverse career experience of over two decades that spans leadership roles focused on building, scaling and transforming businesses.

Prior to joining NIIT, Bimal worked with Manipal Global Education as the Vice President and Head - Enterprise Business. In his seven plus years stint, Bimal played a significant role in establishing Manipal Global as a leading talent development partner for the BFSI Industry. During his tenure, Bimal also provided leadership to Manipal's Enterprise and Executive Education, GlobalNxt University, Assessment Business, International Business and Digital Platform.

Prior to Manipal Global, Bimal worked with Wipro Limited for over a decade where he held multiple leadership roles.

Bimal is an MBA from Symbiosis Institute of International Business, Pune and an alumnus of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business - Accelerated Development Program.


 

 

Sailesh Lalla

Chief Business Officer

NIIT Limited


Sailesh Lalla is the Chief Business Officer at NIIT's Corporate Learning Group and leads the company's learning outsourcing initiatives across corporate markets in North America and Europe. Sailesh has been a part of NIIT since 1993, and has rich experience of forging and managing the governance of large scale outsourcing relationships. He has spearheaded NIIT's Managed Training Services offering and has been instrumental in the company’s growth as a market leader in learning outsourcing. He brings rich international expertise, having lived and worked on major training outsourcing relationships in Singapore, Australia and India.


 

 

DJ Chadha

Chief Customer Officer

NIIT Ltd.


DJ Chadha is the Chief Customer Officer at NIIT’s Corporate Learning Group and heads Learning Delivery Operations and Learning content practice. He is responsible for P&L and execution of all learning outsourcing contracts globally. His key responsibilities include zero defect delivery of all customer commitments profitably, support sales in customer acquisition and employee retention.

DJ joined NIIT in 1992 and has significantly contributed to the growth of the organization in a variety of roles, including Regional Technology Head, Director of Training and Head of Corporate Training. In his role as Regional Technology Head, DJ was responsible for the management of 45 training centres which included the rollout of new curriculum, recruitment, trainer ramp up, and budgets for the entire region. As Director of Training, DJ built NIIT's corporate training business worldwide by orchestrating and managing training delivery for large-scale Managed Training Service partnerships.


 

 

Abhishek Arora

EVP and Business Head

NIIT Digital


Abhishek Arora is EVP and Business Head at NIIT Digital. With 20+ years of experience, Abhishek has taken the reins and has held various leadership positions spanning EdTech, FinTech, E-Commerce and Financial services. He has led multiple large-scale strategic initiatives in these industries, to drive business growth and enhance customer experience for millions of consumers.

An alumnus of ISB (Indian School of Business, Hyderabad), he has spent last several years of his career with some prominent names such as Citibank, Amazon, and LendingKart. Prior to joining NIIT, he was Chief Business Officer at upGrad, where he scaled the consumer business. He holds an outstanding track record in sales, business development, operations, CX, risk management and scaling large teams in start-up ecosystems as well as evolved organizations.