NIIT Ltd appoints Rahul Patwardhan as the next CEO
Bangalore, India, October 6, 2014: The Board of NIIT Ltd announced the appointment of Mr. Rahul Keshav Patwardhan as CEO Designate of the company. Mr. Patwardhan, who has joined today, shall take charge as Chief Executive Officer of NIIT Limited on April 1, 2015.
Mr. Rahul Patwardhan is a Production Engineer, with an MBA from IIM Kolkata. He joined NIIT in 1984 from IIMC campus and began his career in Management Consulting, Corporate & Individual IT Training and Software Services.
In 1987, he was a key member of the team that conceived and implemented NIIT’s Training Services Franchise model. He then led product management of the Individual IT Training business, drove strong annual growth. He also initiated training services Quality Management on industrial engineering principles, to ensure NIIT delivered Quality training consistently, while scaling up. Later, as NIIT’s Corporate Planning manager, he developed and implemented a model for long-term strategic planning and budgeting for the company.
In the early 90’s he set up NIIT’s operations across Asia Pacific, kicking off the globalization of Corporate & Individual learning businesses, and was instrumental in NIIT’s start in China; apart from launching the Software & SI business in the region. He led the acquisition of significant multimedia learning deals in Singapore and Malaysia. During the last part of his 20-year career with the NIIT group, he was the President of Europe & APAC Software business in NIIT Technologies Ltd.
From 2005, Mr. Rahul Patwardhan served as CEO of Logica’s India Offshore unit in Bangalore, as well as the Global Director of Applications Management delivery across Logica worldwide. Mr. Patwardhan was a key member of the global leadership team.
He moved to Europe headquarters of Logica as MD, Global App Services P&L business. By 2011, he oversaw a revenue line of USD 1.5B and a 12000 person globally diverse App Management workforce across all onshore European locations and offshore locations in India, Morocco, Philippines and Central/Eastern Europe. Finally he became the Global Productivity Leader, responsible for design & execution of a strategic program to improve delivery productivity and gross margins across the firm, globally.
In his own words, his career goal is to make a meaningful contribution to the global leveraging of people’s competencies and capabilities and help them deliver to the best of their competencies.
Welcoming Rahul Patwardhan as CEO Designate, Chairman & MD, NIIT Mr. Rajendra Pawar said, “We are delighted to have Rahul Patwardhan joining us as the next CEO of NIIT Ltd. He is taking on this role at a crucial time when the company is poised to expand the Managed Training Services business and consolidate and strengthen the individual learning solutions business across multiple domains, in its path to becoming a globally benchmarked talent development corporation. This appointment is also part of the implementation of our succession plan. On the external front, this is the time when India is giving national focus on building skills in people, with the aspiration of becoming the largest competitive global talent pool. Rahul’s global experience, proven track record and excellence in strategy, technology services management, training services & channel management will enable him to lead the transformation of NIIT’s global offerings and brand positioning in the Global Talent Development space.”
The NIIT Board also approved the following changes to take place at the beginning of the next financial year, i.e., with effect from April 1, 2015, at the senior leadership level in NIIT Ltd. :
– Mr. Rajendra Pawar shall continue to be the Chairman of NIIT Ltd.
– Mr. Vijay Thadani shall become Vice Chairman & Managing Director.
– Mr. P Rajendran shall become Joint Managing Director.
