Up the ranks: Santana Ramakrishnan kickstarts journey as CHRO at Carl Zeiss for India and SAARC markets

Santana is responsible for devising systems and processes to meet people and business needs in line with global corporate governance & standards.

Optics and optoelectronics specialist ZEISS Group, in India, has appointed Santana Ramakrishnan (pictured above) as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for India and neighbouring (SAARC) markets, as of November 2023.

The appointment is a move by Carl Zeiss India to elevate its workforce, enhance its competitive edge, and advance technology excellence.

In this role, Santana is responsible for devising systems and processes to meet people and business needs in line with global corporate governance & standards. She will also collaborate closely with the global teams and functions to enable growth and transformation towards the company’s vision of 'ONE ZEISS'.

Miguel Gonzalez Diaz, Managing Director of Carl Zeiss India (Bangalore) and SAARC Region welcomed Santana to the role, and shared: "Her strategic HR leadership and her passion for nurturing talent align perfectly with our values, and we are confident that she will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our organization in the country."

Santana started her HR journey with GE Capital and credits much of her functional knowledge to the different stints within the organisation. Subsequently, with AXA she worked in key roles with the country businesses, Asia Regional Office, and Global HO, setting up and consolidating AXA’s people practices in new and existing markets.

The HR leader has also worked with Goldman Sachs where she was responsible for building a robust global HR operations practice. Apart from two decades of experience working with MNCs, she has honed her skills within the Indian start-up ecosystem with stints in Udaan.com and DealShare.

Over her career, she has worked across geographies, with extensive stints in Asia and across client groups in Europe and Americas.

Santana considers her most enjoyable assignments to be the ones that balanced people advisory with building HR ecosystems that scale to reinforce business priorities. When she's not busy shaping HR strategies, she enjoys reading, travelling, and mentoring talent in the corporate world.

With over 40,000 employees, ZEISS is active globally in almost 50 countries with around 30 production sites, 60 sales and service companies and 27 research and development facilities (status: 31 March 2023). Founded in 1846 in Jena, the company is headquartered in Oberkochen, Germany.

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Lead image / Provided