Anita Ramachandran, Independent Director at Happiest Minds, is a well-known HR expert in the country and has over 40 years of experience as a management consultant. She is also one of the first generation of women professionals to become an entrepreneur and run a highly successful HR consulting and services organization.

Anita began her career in the Management Consultancy division of AF Ferguson & Co (the KPMG network company in India then) in Mumbai in 1976 as the first woman consultant in the firm. In her nineteen-year stint with AFF, she worked in various parts of the country and was finally a Director. In AFF, Anita worked in a wide range of areas, including finance, industrial market research, strategy, and human resources consulting.

Anita founded Cerebrus Consultants in 1995 to focus on HR advisory services, including organization transformation. Her reputation and innovative work helped her build Cerebrus into a national presence. Over the last 25 years, Cerebrus has worked with over 700 companies in South Asia on a wide variety of HR projects. Cerebrus has a large portfolio of work in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and India. 

Anita is known as an authority in reward management in the country and her work in the compensation and rewards area is well recognized. In recent years, she has been involved in several large organization transformation assignments. Anita has been a regular facilitator for senior and top management workshops and an assessor for many senior positions. Her wide general management consulting experience and insights on HR have enabled her to be a strategic advisor to many family groups. She also works with several PE firms and start-ups to mentor them through their growth journey.

Anita has been an Independent Director on company boards for the last 20 years and has, in this capacity, been associated with a wide range of industries. She is currently on the Board of Grasim, Metropolis Healthcare, Kotak Life, Happiest Minds and several other companies.

Anita supports many organizations in the social sector through pro bono professional work and remains deeply committed to working with women.  She has been, in the past, Chairperson of TIE Women and on the Executive committee of TIE Mumbai and earlier on the Advertising Standards Council of India. 

Anita has an MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute, Mumbai and has won several academic honors.