Come 1 April, 2026 and Naveen Narayanan will take on the role of chief human resources officer (CHRO) at Biocon, the Indian fully-integrated, innovation-led biopharmaceutical company. Till now he was with its subsidiary, Biocon Biologics, as global head of HR.
An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, Naveen Narayanan is backed by over three decades of work experience.
He began his professional journey as a trainee development executive at ITC Hotels, way back in 1993. Over three years later, he moved to Oberoi Hotels & Resorts as training manager and industrial relations.
In September of 1998, he relocated to Muscat, Oman as CHRO of Oman United Agencies for a period of almost three years.
From 2001 to 2003, he worked in Dubai as CHRO, Al-Futtaim. During his two-year tenure, he managed to transform a loss-making retail unit into a profitable one through an aggressive human capital refresh programme.
Standard Chartered Bank appointed him global functional lead-HR shared services, in August of 2003. This appointment brought him back to India. Over two and a half years later, he moved to Accenture as vice president-human resources, based out of Bengaluru. Less than a year and a half into this role, he was elevated to vice president-talent management. By 2009, he had become vice president-human resources, Accenture India. Another elevation in 2011 made him senior principal consultant.
HCL Technologies roped Naveen Narayanan in to be global head of talent management, in March of 2012. The next three years saw him leading the global merger of three functions across, 30 geographies of four listed companies.
He was appointed board director, MD and management consulting lead of Arrows Group Global, in February of 2015. For almost two years, he was based out of London.
Narayanan’s next stop was Publicis.Sapient where he served as VP-talent and planning, India, APAC. Two years later, he switched to KPISOFT as MD-human capital consulting, solutions and transformation. He spent over two and a half years with this global AI- based continuous performance platform for enterprises, before joining Biocon Biologics as global head-HR. Now, he will lead its parent company, Biocon’s, global people strategy, with primary focus on developing talent, transforming the organisation, and creating a culture of high performance in line with the overall growth goals of the company.
Narayan’s ability to drive large-scale HR transformation will stand him in good stead in his new role.
HRKatha wishes Naveen Narayanan all the best!