Granules gets Ashok Leyland’s Uma Rao as CHRO

Granules, a fully-integrated Indian pharmaceuticals manufacturer, has announced the appointment of Uma Rao as its CHRO. The official announcement was made on social media today.

Rao will lead the people strategy for Granules in India. She comes with close to 25 years of experience in managing human resources for various global and home-grown MNCs in India as well as with some public-sector undertakings (PSUs).

In her more than two-decade long career, Rao has honed her skills in strategic HR, contemporary HR policies, business HR partnering, talent management, compensation and benefits, merger & acquisition-related HR work, industrial relations, as well as issues related to labour unions and long-term settlements.

Prior to this appointment, Rao was the VP-HR at Ashok Leyland, where she spent close to seven years.

Rao started her career back in 1990 with Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL). In her 10- year long stint with HPCL, Rao managed recruitment, learning and development, as well as benefits and performance management for about 1500 employees. She responsibly handled the entire gamut of HR and IR at the PSU’s regional office in Secunderabad.

In 2001, Rao joined TCS’ Hyderabad Global Delivery Centre as head- HR and handled all the HR functions from end to end. She was soon elevated to the position of director – HR for South America, Portugal and Spain at TCS, where she spent five successful years.

Later, she joined Idea Cellular (Now Vodafone Idea), as GM-HR, heading HR for the Andhra Pradesh circle, reporting directly to the CHRO and the circle COO.

Her next stop was IBM, where her role was that of GM-HR for almost four years before being promoted to lead the HR function at Mars,as director-people and organisation.

Rao also served as the CHRO for Hyderabad Industries (HIL), part of the CK Birla Group, for about two years prior to joining Ashok Leyland, in 2016.