Meet Priyanka

Education - I am an Electrical Engineer turned People and Culture Leader. Completed a Bachelor’s in Engineering from PEC, Chandigarh, followed by an MBA from SCMHRD. Both are top-tier schools based in India.

First Job - My first job was as a Software Engineer at Birlasoft in India. Within a year of working as an Engineer, I realized my passion lies in building organizations, which led me to pursue a full-time 2-year MBA with a specialization in HR.

Initial years - I spent my early years with large, publicly listed organizations (ITC Limited, Wipro, Genpact), leading complex HR organizations across multiple countries and business verticals. All my roles were newly established, with no predecessor and no playbook to follow. Early on, I was fortunate to run global organizations with a minimum employee headcount of 10,000 — when you make an impact in that big a machinery, it only leads you to ask for more, and that’s where my startup phase started.

Startups — I have spent 8 years and counting building and scaling environments across different sectors — healthcare, adtech, fintech, proptech, and SaaS. In all experiences, I had the opportunity to impact founder journeys, build leadership teams, challenge many people, and culture frameworks to design what matters.

Geo footprint —[Lived in] India —> NY—> Miami—>Austin. Worked on M&A ,building new offices, leading existing teams in Spain, France, Japan, Singapore, UK, Australia, Germany and LATAM.

As I ask this question in all the interviews I conduct, it makes sense that I answer it for myself.

  • How do I describe my impact in the roles that I have held? Transformational is what comes to mind; every career opportunity was a blank canvas, allowing me to paint a set of cultural footprints.

  • Moments that bring deep gratification - I am deeply motivated to make a lasting impact on how we think, how we allow our values to shine, and how we help brilliant minds discover answers that were always there!

  • Career-defining moments - restarting my career across continents, shifting gears into the startup world, to name a few!