Balaji Ganapathy

Balaji is the Global Head of CSR and Chief Social Responsibility Officer for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Previously, he held the position as the Head of Workforce Effectiveness for TCS, overseeing the functions of Human Resources Business Consulting, Diversity & Inclusion, and Corporate Social Responsibility for over 30,000 employees of Tata Consultancy Services in North America. His primary responsibilities include coaching sales and business teams for business growth, driving talent management and employee retention initiatives, architecting the corporate sustainability strategy, and chairing the Diversity & Inclusion Council. 

 

Under his stewardship, TCS is using its technology innovation, thought leadership and skill-based volunteering to impact the state of STEM education in North America, with a special focus on impacting women and girls, minorities and underrepresented groups. Balaji is the Chair of STEMconnector®’s STEM Innovation Task Force (SITF), leading the efforts to galvanize industry engagement to support STEM education, and drive efforts to create digital fluency among students and youth. The SITF is a consortium of thirty eight leading organizations across industry, government, education, and non-profit sectors. He is an Executive Committee member of IMPACT 2030, a global, private sector led collaboration, designed to marshal the power of human capital investments to address the achievement of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. As the Vice Chair of the Million Women Mentors Leadership Council (MWM), he is leading the movement to connect industry mentors with students in need, transforming their outlook towards career and life. The MWM Leadership Council provides guidance and direction for industry led solutions to remove barriers for girls and women in STEM fields. He also serves as the Chairman of NPower's TCC Advisory Council, which has participation from TCS, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, American Express, and Citi. NPower is a national non-profit organization that brings the tech community together for social good. He is spearheading the movement to use skill-based volunteers from the tech community to create tech skills among youth in the local community. He is also a member of the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Education, Employment & Training Committee (EETC), and was on the Advisory Board of their Talent Pipeline Management initiative; an innovative approach to closing the skills gap.

 

He has a proven track record of envisioning, leading and implementing strategic initiatives that impact business, people and communities. He has served as the Head of HR for Global R&D, where he was part of TCS’s Corporate Technology Board & spearheaded the mandate for institutionalizing a culture of innovation across the organization. As Head of HR for TCS’ Corporate Learning Center, he led a team responsible for onboarding & integrating over 12,000 campus hires. Before joining TCS, he co-founded & ran an entrepreneurial venture that provided process consulting services & leadership coaching to companies in the manufacturing sector.

 

Balaji is a regular speaker at national forums, presenting a range of topics relating to business, human resources, corporate social responsibility, and the information technology industry. He is an active advocate of deriving social good through the confluence of public, private & non-profit partnerships. He is a Post Graduate in Human Resources Management and a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering.