CEO Portrait 2024 – Professional Qualifications

Discover what’s common among 83% of India’s CEOs. This analysis from the “CEO Landscape 2024” series explores the professional qualifications, backgrounds, and trends in leadership roles across 100 Indian companies.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝟴𝟯% 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮’𝘀 𝗖𝗘𝗢𝘀?

India’s penchant for professional qualifications is reflected in the CEO pool. 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝟴𝟯% 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗘𝗢𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 – a BE, premier MBA, or a CA, for the most part. Remember that this represents both promoter-CEOs and professional-CEOs.

A technical education is often the case, with BE/BTech standing out. It’s totally understandable, given that the average CEO is 57 years old, and when they grew up, there were very few academic options to choose from. Wonder how this will be when the current generation or the previous few generations step into the role in the future.

How about the work background? Which function did the current CEOs come from? For this, we need to look only at the professional-CEOs and not include the promoter-CEOs.

Within the professional-CEOs, 𝟱𝟳% 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 & 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, which shows a broad-based, industry-agnostic, and B2B/B2C-agnostic preference. Next, at fairly similar levels, come the triumvirate – 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗦𝗖𝗠 & 𝗢𝗽𝘀, and 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 backgrounds. In this, the Strategy background is the surprising entry – anecdotally too, 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 (𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴) 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴.

𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 “𝘊𝘌𝘖 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦 2024” 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘧 100 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 20 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘈𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘌𝘖, 𝘊𝘍𝘖 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘊𝘟𝘖 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮, 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 1100 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴.

𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘂𝗽: “CEO and COO? Or Just CEO?”

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Anu graduated from DU and subsequently completed her full-time MBA from IMI. Post her MBA, she worked in sales in the BFSI space, with ICICI Lombard, Principal Asset Management, DSP Blackrock and Edelweiss, across bancassurance, and institutional sales. Later, she worked in the start-up space, while pursuing and completing the Master's in Business Law from National Law School. At Resource Bridge, Anu is a Sr Associate in the CEO Practice and has worked closely with Ram on key mandates.


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Ram is currently the Leader for the CEO Practice and also the Managing Partner of the firm. Ram is an Engineer-turned (BE Mechanical, MS Industrial) MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, and brings with him 7 years in corporate, 14 years in top-tier consulting and 10 years in executive search. He was last the leader for Life-sciences at Monitor Group and prior to that, headed IMS Consulting and AT Kearney, starting his career with Ashok Leyland. Brings extensive experience in automotive and healthcare/life-sciences space.


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Dhanlaxmi is a CA and ICWA from Mumbai, and brings with her extensive experience as a practicing chartered accountant, serving clients across industries. Alongside, she also served as a visiting faculty in several institutions. At Resource Bridge, Dhana is an Consultant in the CFO Practice, where she has worked with Saroja on several of the key CFO mandates.


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Saroja is a merit-ranking ICWA and is the Lead for the CFO Practice. Coming from an industrial family, she initally worked in the family business focused on automotive forgings. Later, she set up Resource Bridge along with Ram and grew it from infancy. Just over the last few years, she has led 40+ CFO engagements for a variety of clients, and has one of the best networks within the CFO Community, not only in India but outside too. She brings extensive experience in Retail, FMCG and Manufacturing sector.


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Rachana is an MBA with prior work experience at Reliance Industries for 8 years. In her last role at Reliance, Rachana was the Product Manager for the  $55M Benzene and Xylene portfolio, with responsibility over sales, commercial and client management. Later she was at Sizer Metals, a base metal trading firm, working on hedging, supply chain and account management. At Resource Bridge, she is a Sr Associate in the CFO Practice and has worked with Saroja, the CFO Practice Lead, in delivering key mandates.


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Mona leads the BD & New Client Engagement function at Resource Bridge and is responsible for all client development activities for the firm. She comes from a marketing and brand promotions background, having worked in the marketing function at Matsushita. Mona has done her full-time MBA.


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