Born in a simple middle class in 1978. Growing up wasn’t easy as father had issues pertaining to depression and mother was compelled to work as a bank clerk. Living in a large joint family, his grandmother was a source of love and guidance for him in his formative years. Owing to the family circumstances he was determined to do well for himself and family. He would spend large chunks of time by himself listening to music, commuting long distances to school and focusing on his education while supporting his family doing household chores. At times with one pair of decent clothes for family occasions etc. he knew education was perhaps his only way to secure his future.
He pursued a bachelors degree focusing on Mathematics, Physics and Electronics. He was fascinated with Electronics, a science that drove digital devices. Having graduated top of class, he went on to pursue a 3 years Masters degree in Computer Science. Through these years, he would stay disciplined to ensure he did well in his studies and had a fighting chance to succeed while coping with his personal circumstances . He graduated from his Masters degree top of class into a dot com crash and poor job market. After persistent effort he landed a highly competitive and prestigious job with Deloitte (big four consulting firm). As a business analyst, he was trained to implement SAP for large global organizations.
Although with a prestigious job and good pay , he observed that tech implementations were complex and riddled with issues. He was frustrated with the fact that the knowledge he had gained wasn’t helping in holistically addressing issues that were rooted in business problems. This led to the pursuit of a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) at Michigan State University. He couldn’t afford the tuition fees, however a tuition scholarship and a bridge loan on the family home enabled this opportunity in 2005. Quitting his job and leaving home was a scary proposition. This was a whole new world requiring him to juggle a part time job and an intense school schedule. He had to live on a very small stipend and focus on various management disciplines. His dream was to work be an automotive executive at one of the Big 3 US auto companies.
Having interned at DaimlerChrysler in 2006 , he realized he would have a hard time thriving in large bureaucratic and complex organizations. With a focus on supply chain management his options were limited to manufacturing and logistics organizations. After lot of reflection he decided to pivot to pursuing management consulting. However, prestigious consulting firms recruited from Tier 1 schools like Harvard, Stanford, Chicago etc. His school’s career services advised him to have a Plan B. He however redoubled his efforts to finding how the interviews worked, cold called his Alumni and networked hard to land interviews. Competing with students from Tier 1, he landed a job as Senior Consultant in Human Capital for Big 4 firm. For 1.5 years the work and quality of life seemed to vindicate his life long efforts. The 2008 economic downturn wreaked havoc. He was laid off and had 30 days to find another job or leave the country. During these extremely turbulent times, he managed to find a job with a small start up consulting firm the focused on business transformation for utility companies.
Two years at the start up, allowed him to cut through bureaucracy and interact with senior executives. He attended critical business meetings and soon became a confidant and thought partner for some of the senior leaders. The projects were immensely successful, however life of road warrior had led to herniated disks in his back. He transition to role of manager for American Express (Amex). At Amex as manager and then director, he led complex projects that focused on driving large change to improve business performance. The large change efforts led him to interact, influence senior leaders (e.g. Executive Vice Presidents, Presidents, Chief Legal Officer and Vice Chairman). He was drawn to leaders who inspired their teams and had amazing followership within organization. He was intrigued by leadership styles and techniques used by leaders to inspire teams. This led him to shift focus away from business strategy, transformation to learning and leadership development.
While at American Express, his roles no longer required the arduous weekly travel. As energy and time permitted he explored his interests perhaps for the first time beyond his education , work. Art lessons introduced a whole new self to him. The freedom to create and to express , something he hadn’t done throughout his life having maniacally focused on “success”. Occasional art lessons at the New York League, art meet up groups, volunteering experiences in New York, salsa lessons would encourage him to boldly pursue a new vision for self. Art and developing Leaders would be at the core of this. He realized from his experiences that Leaders both in business and elsewhere had a multiplier effect on society. Individuals achieving personal excellence were more fulfilled, contented and had a net positive impact on society.
As a Director at American Express he had been very successful. He soon realized that his passions couldn’t be easily realized if he stayed the course of business transformation and strategy. Changing lanes wasn’t easy at his level as Director. Transitioning to Mastercard, as Head/ VP of Learning and Leadership Development he not only transformed the learning model for the consulting division but also pursued a two year rigorous program in Coaching to become a certified coach. This eventually led him to roles focused on leadership development and coaching at Colgate and Amazon. Integrating his business experience with coaching, he was able to truly relate with clients and offer them a space for reflection and growth. Coaching leaders who led teams of 20,000 to 30,000 employees allowed him to enhance his ability to relate with leaders who led at scale.
While building leadership development solutions and coaching senior leaders at Amazon he experienced the stress of the pandemic. He observed his clients (leaders) struggling to cope with it at a personal and professional level and watched friends lose dear family members to COVID. He also had a few gallery exhibitions of his art work at Seattle. Besides working very hard at Amazon, art took a new meaning during the pandemic and isolation. Having been away from India for close to two decades he decided to spend time with his parents and focus on finding a way for more balance and achieving more freedom to pursue passions. Through Art lessons, Travel, Volunteering and reconnecting with business leaders he prepared himself from within and built clarity around vision and mission for Vimoksha.