After working with PepsiCo for more than thirteen years, Suchitra Rajendra, CHRO and VP Human Resources India Region of PepsiCo will be joining COLT Tech as Country Head, India and HR Head, Global Operations (Europe and Asia).

Talking to People Matters about her stint with PepsiCo, Suchitra Rajendra said, “It was a wonderful journey of thirteen years in different roles and responsibilities. I was on the journey of learning and development throughout and managed different locations. The company provided me with tremendous opportunities where I represented them in multiple external and internal forums, and it helped me grow.”

When asked about her new role, she said, “I think it is going to be extremely exciting to take up this dual role, it will be a new domain where I will bridge diverse functions. My learnings from the previous organization where HR was a key to all business decisions will help me a lot.”  

Suchitra believes that people are the heart of any successful organization and she is keen to work where she can manage the dual role of business and people.

Suchitra joined PepsiCo in 2006 as Org Capability, BU HR and Employee Communications and in 2009 was appointed as Director Talent sustainability, PepsiCo India. In less than 4 years, she was promoted to the position of Sr. Director Human Resources, PepsiCo APAC. Soon within 2 years, her scope of responsibilities widened as she was named VP Human Resources India region in 2015.

 A post graduate from XLRI Jamshedpur, Suchitra has experience in strategic HR, organization design, C&B, capability building, M&A, job evaluations, policy formulation, HR operations, talent acquisition, culture change and internal communications. She has worked in different industry sectors including telecom, service consulting and FMCG and in various geographies, including India, APAC and Australia.

Suchitra has also been in a consulting role in Cerebrus Consultants Pvt. Ltd. Prior to that, she has set up the HR function for WorkVentures, Sydney Australia as Sr. Human Resources Manager.

 Two years back when Suchitra came in People Matters TechHR 2017, she had shared her organization’s experience of implementing Manager Self Services and Employee Self Services system across the globe. She had spoken about the challenges the team faced while implementing this system across the globe in one shot and how they navigated through it.

A strong advocate of Diversity and Inclusion, Suchitra has many times voiced her opinions and shared her thoughts on how organizations can create a more inclusive culture. She also led the D&I agenda for PepsiCo and many transformation initiatives.