Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has elevated Sudeep Kunnumal to the role of chief human resources officer (CHRO) designate starting 14 March 2025. He is stepping into the shoes of Milind Lakkad who is reportedly superannuating.
Kunnumal began his tryst with human resources in 1995 when he joined Indo Matsushita Appliances as senior personnel officer. Almost three years later, he moved to Petro Araldite, as head of human resources for two years.
September of 2000 saw him take on the role of human resources manager, TCS, working out of Chennai. Almost four years into this role, he was elevated to head-immigration North America. This role saw him working out of Washington DC for over a year before moving to Amsterdam as head of human resources-Europe.Less than three and a half years later, he was back in India, as head talent acquisition, India. He worked out of Mumbai for more than six years before another promotion came his way.
From 2016 to 2019, he was based in Singapore as director HR-Asia Pacific. He was back in India in December of 2019 to play global head of human resources, banking, financial services and insurance, TCS, working out of Chennai.
Known to be a dynamic leader and mentor who believes in walking the talk, Sudeep Kunnumal, an alumnus of Madurai Kamaraj University—where he pursued an MSW in personnel management— will take over from Milind Lakkad.
Lakkad, who holds a master’s degree in design engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, has been with TCS since 2007. He had joined as global head-manufacturing. Twelve and a half years later he was elevated to executive vice president and CHRO, based out of Pune.
In his three decades of experience, Lakkad has led business development, consulting, programme management, organisation change management and IT delivery management across various sub verticals in the manufacturing, hi-tech and transportation industry.
