PwC appoints Padmaja Alaganandan as new Chief People Officer in India
Global professional services firm PwC has appointed a new Chief People Officer (CPO) for its India practice. The firm’s Technology Lead Padmaja Alaganandan, who has been with PwC for a continuous spell of eight years since 2011, will take over from incumbent CPO Jagjit Singh.
Having graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Alaganandan began her professional career at PwC in 2000. She joined Strategy&’s Change Consulting Practice, where she worked for three years and eventually rose to the rank of Principal Consultant before moving to Mercer in 2005.
At Mercer, she began as a Principal Consultant for Human Capital and made her way up to the position of Business Leader for Human Capital at Mercer Consulting. She rejoined PwC in 2011, and has been a Partner at the firm in addition to leading the firm’s Technology and Advisory segments.
Her role as CPO at PwC is informed by her previous experience as a Leader of PwC’s People and Organisation Consulting practice. She takes the helm of PwC’s people management activities at a time when talent management and development is increasingly crucial in firms across India.
As firms across the country begin to digitalise, there is not only the demand to foster an environment and spirit of innovation amongst the country’s business environment, but also to equip professionals with the skills required to work in collaboration with machines and technology.
Major professional services firms such as PwC are under particular pressure to live up to these changes, given their role in facilitating the digital transformation of their clients’ organisation, which extends to the development of skills amongst their workforce.
Alaganandan has expressed the importance of fostering an enabling environment within PwC as well, specifying that “:Building a wellbalanced and inclusive workforce is key to our business. She takes over the role of CPO from Jagjit Singh, who has held the position for nearly five years now.
