Pankaj is a seasoned business leader with experience building and growing start-ups and large-scale businesses. His career spans several industry roles, entrepreneurship, and consulting. Prior to joining Heidrick & Struggles, Pankaj was a director of strategy and operations at Google India. In this role, he defined short-term and long-term strategies, led governance and processes, shaped organizational structures, led deals commercialization, and select investment approaches. He initiated DEI initiatives and worked on key ecosystem topics such as "Next Billion Users" and women entrepreneurship. Previously, Pankaj was with McKinsey & Company, where he worked closely with senior leaders on large-scale sales transformations with leading players in the consumer goods and industrial sectors. He also helped clients to shape and implement a growth strategy, operational efficiencies, organization transformation, and leadership capability building. Pankaj has been a start-up CEO and co-founder in the health and education spaces and has held several roles in the industry at various organizations, including Asian Paints and IBM. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt. Pankaj speaks on digital transformation and DE&I. He writes Hindi poetry, has authored the book Aaj Kal and supports social causes, including food and the welfare of children. Education Indian School of Business, MBA IIT Delhi, B. Tech UMass Amherst, Exchange Program, B. Tech.