Hikal appoints Ratish Jha as president-HR

Hikal, the biotechnology and pharmaceutical company, has appointed Ratish Jha as its president-HR. With almost 20 years of professional experience backing him, Jha has dabbled in both human resources and the commercial or business side of the corporate world.

In his new role, Jha will lead the HR function for Hikal from end to end. Talking to HRKatha, Jha reveals, “Hikal was looking for someone who understands and has an experience of the commercial and business side, in addition to knowledge of HR.”

Hikal manufactures and supplies quality active ingredients, intermediates and biocides to the global life sciences industry.

According to Jha, since the pharma and biotech sector is witnessing a surge in demand, “we can expect some kind of ramp up in hiring at Hikal to meet this growing demand in the market”. Apart from that, the major area of focus for Jha will be creating a high-performance culture to meet the expectations of the clients and customers, upskilling employees and ensuring connect amongst them amidst a hybrid work model.

Earlier, Jha was the business head for the transformer and gas meter division at Raychem RPG, a hydrocarbon and energy solutions company part of the RPG Group.

Jha has spent close to 16 years with the RPG Group, working for its various verticals and businesses.

In 2006, Jha joined KEC International as GM and head of human resources and moved to RPG Life Sciences as VP and head of HR after three years. Having spent three years at RPG Life Sciences, Jha went on to take up the role of SVP-HR at Raychem RPG, in 2012.

Four years later, he received an opportunity to head the profit centre for the transformer division at Raychem RPG, which he grabbed. “At RPG, I was able to work for different companies within the Group and take up varied roles. The Company gave me the flexibility to move between roles and different businesses,” shares Jha gratefully.

A postgraduate from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Jha has worked for various players in the manufacturing sector.

In the early stages of his career, Jha has worked with a company called Britt Worldwide, which is into business education and training. He served as the Company’s country HR manager for more than two years. Moving on, Jha joined JSW in 2003 as a senior manager- HR and spent close to two years with the Company.

Jha also completed a short stint of six months with Essel Propack (EPL), a packaging solutions company, as an assistant manager – HR.