IFF has roped in Raj Karunakaran for the role of head-HR, Indian Subcontinent. He moves to IFF, a player in the flavours, fragrances, food ingredients, health and biosciences space, after an almost seven-year long association with Cargill.
Having postgraduated from Savitrbhai Phule Pune University, Karunarakan also studied strategic HR at University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
Raj Karunakaran started off as an HR generalist with Tech Mahindra in 1998 and then moved to Astra Zeneca as manager-HR after three years. He then switched, in 2003, to Fidelity Investments for six years before joining Philips in 2009. He stayed with Philips for over nine years and climbed up the ranks steadily before joining Cargill in 2018.
He joined as global HR leader-Cargill Business Services. Less than two years into this role, he was elevated to director/head-HR, Indian Subcontinent. For the next three years and 10 months, he was part of Cargill’s Country Leadership Team and board of directors, heading a 38-member HR team for South Asia. In December of 2023, he was promoted to business HR leader-APAC (Cargill Nutrition and Health). In this role, he was responsible for developing and deploying the people and culture strategy for Cargill across 80 manufacturing locations with over 6500 employees, in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
In his latest role at IFF, Raj Karunakaran will work alongside business leaders to shape IFF’s people-centric strategies that support the growth of IFF’s business groups (taste, scent, health & biosciences, food ingredients) in the Indian Subcontinent.
Known to be a transformative and visionary HR leader, his communication skills, pleasing personality and meticulousness will be an asset to IFF. HRKatha wishes Karunakaran all the best!
