Independent Directors

Anita Ramachandran

Independent Director

Anita is a well-known HR expert in the country and has over 40 years’ experience as a management consultant. She is 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 (AFF), a KPMG network company in India then, as its first woman consultant. In her 19 years stint with AFF, she worked in Finance, Industrial Market Research, Strategy and Human Resources Consulting roles across India and finally became its Director.

Anita founded Cerebrus Consultants in 1995 for HR advisory services, including organization transformation. With her innovative approach, she grew it to international scale, having worked with over 700 companies in South Asia (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India) on a wide variety of HR projects.

Known as an authority in Reward Management in India, Anita’s work in the compenzation and rewards area is well-recognized. Recently, she was involved in several large organization transformation assignments. She regularly facilitates senior and top management workshops and assesses senior positions. She is a strategic advisor to many family groups. She also works with several PE firms, mentors start-ups and supports organizations in the social sector.

Anita has been an Independent Director on Boards of companies across diverse industries for the last 20 years. She is currently on the Board of Grasim, Metropolis Healthcare, Kotak Life, Happiest Minds and several other companies.

She was the Chairperson of TiE Women and was on the Executive Committee of TiE Mumbai and Advertising Standards Council of India.

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

Rajendra Srivastava

Independent Director

Rajendra Srivastava (Raj) is the Novartis Professor of Marketing Strategy and Innovation at the Indian School of Business (Hyderabad and Mohali, India). He is the Executive Director, Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at ISB. He serves as Independent Director, Happiest Minds and is on the Advisory Boards of Istakapaza, the State Bank Institute of Consumer Banking, and the Punjab - University Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Incubation Center.

Raj has served as Provost and Deputy President at Singapore Management University, and as Senior Associate Dean at the McCombs Business School, University of Texas at Austin and the Goizueta Business School, Emory University. A distinguished scholar, he has held the George Kozmetsky Centennial Chair at UT-Austin and the Roberto C. Goizueta Chair in Marketing and Digital Commerce at Emory University. He has been a Visiting Professor at London Business School and Helsinki School of Economics. He is a member of EFMD Deans Across Borders (EDAF).

Raj is a Fellow (Distinguished Educator) at the American Marketing Association, the Mack Institute for Innovation at the Wharton School, the Institute for Studies in Business Markets at Penn State University and at the IC-Sq. Institute, University of Texas at Austin.

His research, spanning marketing and finance/economics, has been published in various leading Journals. He was on the editorial boards of Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) and International Journal for Research in Marketing (IJRM). He was an editor of special issues for the JMR on Brand Equity, and Journal of Marketing (JM) on Marketing Strategy Meets Wall Street.

A recipient of multiple research awards, his work on Market-Based Assets in the JM received the Maynard Award, MSI/Paul Root Award and AMA/ Sheth Foundation Award. His thought leadership is reflected in ~23,000 Google Citations referencing his work.

He has consulted and delivered executive development programs across North and Latin America, Europe and Asia for multiple large technology and financial services firms. He has also worked with several companies in B2B product markets.

He holds a B. Tech. (Honors) in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and an MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Rhode Island. His MBA and Ph.D. (Business Administration) degrees are from the University of Pittsburgh.

Shubha Rao Mayya

Independent Director

Shubha is an Independent Non-Executive Director of Happiest Minds. She has been associated with our Company since June 4, 2020 and has 30 years of experience in the banking and insurance sector. Previously, she served as the Vice President at ICICI, Senior Vice President and Head - CSO branch operations at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company and a General Manager at Tata Consultancy Services (previously TCS eServe). She also serves as an Independent Director on the Boards of Ace Designers, Ace Manufacturing System, Stovekraft, Le Travenues Technology Limited and Confirm Ticket Online Solutions Private Limited (a material subsidiary company of Le Travenues Technology Limited).

She holds a Bachelor’s of Commerce degree from University of Mumbai and is an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, New Delhi.