A.N. Rao

SVP, Global Head: Cognizant Academy, Cognizant

A.N. Rao, Senior Vice President & Global Head Cognizant Academy, leads the L&D function at Cognizant. His team is responsible for the envisioning and execution of the learning strategies, partnerships and technologies that help over 250,000 associates through their journey of learning—from the last year in University to the time they grow into leadership roles at Cognizant. They own the skilling imperative for the firm’s Digital Transformation journey and fulfil this role by creating and curating innovative, relevant, immersive content, hands-on labs and capability assessments.

Rao firmly believes that “Learning Agility” is really the sustainable competitive differentiator that successful corporations should strive for in an environment of constant change and disruption. Making “Learning Agility” a part of the organization’s culture is really the true contribution of any L&D function.

Prior to his current role as the head of Cognizant Academy, Rao performed diverse leadership roles globally, in the areas of Manufacturing, IT, Delivery Excellence and IT Services in a career spanning 33 years in global MNCs and large Indian Corporations.

Building successful leadership teams and nurturing nascent businesses and functions to scale has been the area of focus for Rao during his career journey. Rao is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Warangal and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.