US pharmaceutical company MSD (Merck & Co.) has announced the appointment of Bhargavi Kakunuri’s as its human resources (HR) lead, India and member of the India leadership team, as well as the Asia Pacific HR leadership team. 

She will succeed Sameer Tamhane, who retires in November.

In her new role, Bhargavi will report to Noora Alsagoff, head of human resources, MSD Asia Pacific, responsible for developing and implementing the HR strategy that drives innovation and business growth in India. 

She will lead the HR function across the enterprise to enable an agile learning culture, leverage talent opportunities in the market, promote managerial and leadership capability building, and bring impactful diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to life.

“Bhargavi brings a wealth of experience in shaping a diverse, inclusive, and high-performance culture. Her background in leadership development, organizational planning, and HR strategy will be an asset to this organisation. We are thrilled to have someone of her caliber join our team,” said Rehan A Khan, managing director MSD India-region.

Bhargavi joins MSD from P&G India Consumer Health, where she led the annual business formulation exercise and focused on strengthening capabilities for the future while building a strong leadership succession pipeline and driving an engaged and high-performance culture. 

Diversity, equity, and inclusion have always been at the forefront of Bhargavi’s priorities as an HR leader. She has executed many innovative initiatives to improve gender balance and create a culture of inclusion in her past organisations.

Bhargavi is a seasoned HR professional with more than ten years of experience in a breadth of HR business partner and HR director roles, including corporate, commercial, sales, and supply chain functions.

She also led the HR operations center of excellence during an earlier stint at P&G India. Prior to this, she was HR director for the supply chain organisation of AMA West Region.