US laboratory, Fermilab appoints Anju Jain as CHRO

Anju Jain has been appointed as the chief human resources officer at Fermilab, a particle physics and accelerator laboratory in the US.

Fermilab, receives support from the Office of Science of the US Department of Energy for research in the physical sciences. It’s 1,750 employees include scientists and engineers from all around the world. Fermilab collaborates with more than 50 countries on physics experiments based in the United States and elsewhere.

Jain will also head the Workforce Development Resource Section (WDRS). In her new role, she will lend her expertise in facilitating the needs of the workforce and also work to uphold the Company’s equity, diversity and inclusion agenda. She will be responsible for modernising business processes and helping Fermilab on its path to success.

Having completed her MS in developmental psychology from Delhi University, Jain went on to do a PhD in the subject from the Pennsylvania State University. She began her career as a marketing analyst at Kraft Foods Group, New York before moving on to Avon Products Inc in 1997, where she worked as consumer and sensory research consultant for a year.

Her longest stint of nine years was with Caterpillar Inc., where she joined as business analyst and became market research and customer loyalty consultant in two years. By 2005, she was leading a diverse portfolio of global and regional initiatives to design solutions, drive process improvements and reduce costs through significant influence, collaboration, and stakeholder management, as senior strategic HR consultant/ business partner.

In 2008, this certified 6 Sigma Blackbelt became programme manager, Asia Pacific – Finance Division. In this role, she successfully designed and executed Asia-Pacific vendor- management strategy and led a cross-functional team of over 20 accounting, purchasing, IT, and treasury professionals across India, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia for a year.

For seven years, from 2010 to 2017, she served as the head – HR, India / ASEAN (SE. Asia). The next three years she spent as a commissioned author for Penguin Random House and co-authored a book on Leadership.

Her expertise and “experience in international recruiting, succession planning, performance management and the use of data for decision-making” should be an asset to the Company, as pointed out by Nigel Lockyer, director, Fermilab.