Sekhmet Pharmaventures has roped in Jitendra Jalan as its new chief human resources officer, as the company prepares for its next phase of global expansion and organisational scaling. Jalan brings over 25 years of multidisciplinary leadership experience spanning sales, operations and human resources, with deep exposure to manufacturing-led and regulated environments.
In his new role, Jalan will lead Sekhmet’s overall people and talent strategy, with a focus on strategic HR business partnering, leadership development, workforce planning and capability building. A key priority will be fostering a high-performance, people-centric culture that supports the company’s integrated API and CDMO business model and its expanding global footprint.
His career includes senior leadership roles at organisations such as USV, ACC (Holcim Group), Endress+Hauser India, Astral Glass, and technology-led companies, where he has been closely involved in large-scale transformation, workforce integration and leadership pipeline development.
Prior to joining Sekhmet, Jalan served as vice president–human resources at USV, where he headed HR for eight manufacturing plants across India and led corporate talent acquisition for a workforce of approximately 4,000 employees. His role involved partnering closely with business leaders across pharmaceutical and consumer products businesses, supporting large-scale operations, succession planning and talent growth across geographies.
Earlier, at ACC, part of the Holcim Group, Jalan was general manager–HR, overseeing people strategy for the Technical Centre of Excellence and the Central Procurement function. During his tenure, he played a pivotal role in organisation restructuring and change initiatives, while maintaining high levels of employee engagement across 35 locations, including leading HR transformation at one of the world’s largest cement plants with a workforce of over 3,000 employees.
At Endress+Hauser India, a Swiss multinational in process automation, he was instrumental in establishing core HR processes and policies, driving a shift towards a performance-oriented culture and significantly reducing voluntary attrition. His initiatives, including performance-linked incentives, transparent performance management systems and leadership- development frameworks, supported a doubling of business scale during his tenure.
Earlier in his career, Jalan also held leadership responsibilities at Astral Glass, where he combined HR leadership with operational exposure, including plant administration, union negotiations, business process re-engineering and oversight of a major capacity expansion project. His initial years in field sales and operations have shaped his ability to align HR strategy closely with business execution.
An alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur, Jalan is an ICF-ACC accredited executive coach, bringing a strong coaching-led leadership development perspective to the organisation. He has hands-on experience in people analytics and HR technology implementations, supporting data-driven decision-making in complex organisations.
In addition to the CHRO appointment, Sekhmet Pharmaventures has also strengthened its executive team with the appointment of Sumit Kumar as chief commercial officer. The move further reinforces the company’s leadership bench as it builds a future-ready organisation to support its next phase of global growth.
Commenting on the leadership appointments, Santosh Mahil, managing director & CEO, Sekhmet, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Jitendra and Sumit to Sekhmet. As a fully integrated API and CDMO platform through Optimus Pharma and Anjan Drug, we are experiencing strong growth across our API and CDMO business. These appointments enhance both our commercial and operational leadership, enabling us to address evolving global customer needs with agility, expertise and sustainability at the core.”
