Dr. Ganesh Natarajan

Dr. Ganesh Natarajan is Executive Chairman and Co-Promoter of GTT Data Solutions, Lighthouse Communities Foundation and 5F World. He is also Chairman of Honeywell Automation India Ltd and EPPS and a Board Director of Hinduja Global, Educate Girls, 1 Crowd Investors, SBI Payments and Skills Alpha.

Ganesh has a Bachelors’ Degree in Mechanical Engineering from BIT Mesra, Masters’ in Industrial Engineering from IIM Mumbai, PhD from IIT Bombay and Advanced Management qualifications from Harvard Business School. He has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of BIT Mesra, IIT Bombay and NITIE (now IIM Mumbai)  and has been recognized by EY and the Asia Pacific HR Forum for excellence in technology entrepreneurship and people-centric leadership.  He completed two successful CEO tenures over twenty-five years at APTECH and Zensar Technologies. Harvard Business School has written and teaches two case studies on Dr. Ganesh Natarajan and his success through Vision Communities and Innovation.

Ganesh commenced his career with manufacturing firm Crompton Greaves Ltd, did a three-year entrepreneurial stint and then headed Mumbai Region and Corporate Consulting and Training in IT Education and Consulting firm NIIT. He became CEO of APTECH in 1991 and grew the company to be a global market leader with over 1200 computer training centres in forty-two countries. In twenty-four of these countries including China, APTECH became the market leader. He also served on the Board of Hexaware Technologies and left the group in 2001 after listing APTECH on the London Stock Exchange.

Between 2001 and 2016, Ganesh was Managing Director of Zensar Technologies Ltd. He grew the company’s revenues over fifteen times and made it a leader in providing digital transformation solutions for manufacturing, retail and financial services firms. Most of the work was for Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 organisations in the USA and Europe. During the last five years of Ganesh’s tenure as CEO, Zensar recorded a market value of forty-four percent CAGR, a record in the stock markets for the technology industry. During his tenure, Ganesh lived and worked in India, UK and the USA.

After 2016, Ganesh has been a successful entrepreneur and investor, building companies with a successful track record of digital deployment  and skills and livelihoods transformation. He has served as independent director of State Bank of India group and also chaired IT Strategy at the Board level for the Bank. He has also served on the Boards of Social Venture Partners India and International and Principal Asset Management, led HBS Club of India as President and served on the national councils of CII, NASSCOM and AIMA.

The current investment companies where he plays a Board role are…

• Sustain & Save, in the Sustainability & ESG space
• POSHS Group in Steel Products Manufacturing
• EPPS, an ERP for Defence & Manufacturing
• Arise Ventures, CSVP Fund and 1 Crowd Fund

Ganesh is the author of fourteen books and a regular writer and speaker at national and international forums. His last three business books on Digital Success, Facing up to the China Challenge and India’s Pathways to Success have been best sellers and recipient of business book awards.

He is focused on skills, employment and entrepreneurship generation in the country and strongly believes that Indian youth can contribute significantly to Viksit Bharat – a developed India.