Dr. Lakshmi Nadkarni

Certified Life Coach & Ex-Director HR South Asia BASF

Dr. Lakshmi Nadkarni brings close to 25 years of corporate experience to Human Resources Function. Lakshmi spent five years in academia at the University of Poona while pursuing a doctoral programme in Industrial Sociology soon after completing Master’s in Sociology and Social Welfare. Her corporate career began with Consumer industry at Reckitt Benckiser in India followed by the responsibility for Heading - Human Resources in Sri Lanka operations. She moved to manufacturing and specialty chemicals where she spent 10 years, first with the BASF Group in India and later with Dow Chemicals as the HR Leader for Dow India. Her last stint before she returned to BASF India as Head Human Resources – South Asia was with Pfizer Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical company where she also held the position of an Executive Director on the Board. She held an Executive Director position at the BASF India Board till March 2019. She has made valuable contributions to the organisations she served and to the Human Resources domain as part of the Industry Forum. She led significant change management initiatives and delivery of strategic HR solutions in the Organizations she worked with. Dr Lakshmi retired from active service in Feb 2020. Besides being appointed on the Board of NELCO, a Tata enterprise as an Independent Director, she is also an Independent Director on the Board of Ponni Sugars Ltd, All Time Plastics Ltd., and on the Advisory Board of Tagros Chemicals India Pvt Ltd. She is a Managing Partner at Gladwin International. Being an ICF certified Life Coach, she has had the opportunity to coach several Industry senior Managers and Leaders across sectors. She also contributes to the academic world and is associated with TISS, IGTC, Somaiah Institute of Management Studies among several others.