Rajesh Padmanabhan has been appointed as the chairman at the HONO board of directors. HONO is an HR tech company offering various AI-driven HR tech solutions to the industry. In this role, Padmanabhan will be responsible for the global expansion of HONO. He will also help accelerate growth, deepen domain and product expertise and play a crucial part in the organisational building of the Company.
Padmanabhan’s career spans over three decades in which he has lead the HR function for various big conglomerates, leading their group HR function across sectors. Before becoming a full-time entrepreneur as the CEO of Talavyy Business Catalyst —which offers consultancy in areas such as digital acceleration, branding and communication, people and culture change and leadership — Padmanabhan was the group CHRO of Welspun Group.
At Welspun, he lead HR for various businesses of the group, including textiles, pipes, steel, infrastructure, as well as floorings and warehousing. “Rajesh’s experience runs deep, and his learnings are multi-functional and multi-disciplinary, including that of senior industry & consulting leader. This will be invaluable to HONO as we grow and pursue our vision of transforming HR with technology, business impact and innovation,” says Mukul Jain, CEO, HONO.
In the initial phase of his career, Padmanabhan worked with ICICI Bank. He did not start his career as an HR professional but managed various portfolios such as corporate banking, P&Ls, corporate strategy, powering institutional business of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), SAP functional and business consulting. He spent more than nine years with ICICI.
It was in the year 2000 that he took up the role of VP-HR at 3i Infotech. Later in his career, Padmanabhan went on to lead the group HR functions of firms such as the Oberoi Group, Capgemini and Vedanta Resources.
During his checkered career, Padmanabhan has been exposed to the banking, manufacturing, hospitality & consumer, IT services and consulting sectors as well as diversified conglomerates.
Georgie Antony, director – South East Asia, HONO, believes that Padmanabhan “has all that is needed to navigate the new millennial business-people matrix” as the firm is “at the cusp of a major leap”.
Confident of Padmanabhan’s “multi-dimensional expertise”, the Company is all set to benefit from his expertise in “organisational excellence, leadership building, talent designing, rewards management or all-round HR operations” and is looking forward to him guiding and leading “radical and innovative changes at HONO”.