Rakesh Khanna (born 1962) was the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

of Atos Syntel. He served as Syntel's chief executive officer and president until October 2018, after being appointed interim CEO in November 2016. Prior to that, he served as the company's

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

from 2012 to 2016. He previously served as a president of Syntel's

Banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becau ...

and Financial Services business unit from 2005 until 2012. He was part of the Syntel executive advisory team that shaped Syntel's

business process outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

(BPO) business.Executive Profile
Forbes. Prior to Syntel, Khanna was part of the leadership team at I-flex Solutions. He has also worked with Tata Burroughs Limited where he managed projects in the US, UK,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

for several banks and financial groups.Executive Profile
NASSCOM.

Early life and education

Khanna was born in

Indore Indore () is the largest and most populous city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of both Indore District and Indore Division. It is also considered as an education hub of the state and is the only city to ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

, a central state of

, and grew up in suburban Mumbai. He completed his B.E. ( Electrical Engineering) degree from

Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) ( Marathi : ''वीरमाता जिजाबाई टेक्नॉलोजिकल इन्स्टिट्यूट)'' is a state funded college located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, I ...

, Mumbai, following which he did M.B.A (

Marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

) from SVKM's NMIMS, Mumbai. He is a member of the Academic Council and Board of Studies for IT.

Career

Khanna worked in the

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and Reproducibility, reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in me ...

services industry in North America,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

. Before being appointed interim CEO in 2016, he was the COO of Syntel and has also was president of the company's Banking and Financial Services Business Unit from 2005 until 2012. Prior to joining Syntel in 2005, he worked with Oracle Financial Services Software Limited (formerly I-flex Solutions Limited), where he was a member of the leadership team and spent 10 years in various roles. He was on the Supervisory Board of Login Systems SA, France, in which I-flex acquired a strategic stake in 2003. He also set up operations in Japan and Europe, leading and managing various elements of the operations in those countries. Other roles included leading sales in the Middle East and Europe, head of

product marketing Product marketing is sub-field of marketing that is responsible for crafting messaging, go-to-market flow, and promotion of a product. Product marketing managers can also be involved in defining and sizing target markets along with other business ...

for its banking product, and Global Relationship Director for a roll out of their product at

GE Consumer Finance GE Capital is the financial services division of General Electric. The company currently only runs one division, GE Energy Financial Services. It had provided additional services in the past; however, those units were sold between 2013 and 201 ...

in 43 countries.Executive Profile
Bloomberg Businessweek. Khanna worked with

Citicorp Citigroup Inc. or Citi (stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomer ...

CITIL managing sales and marketing of software products for 10 years. He has also worked with Tata Burroughs Limited for over a decade. He started as a mainframe programmer with the company and rose through the levels to become Group Manager. During his tenure, he managed projects for several banks and financial groups, including BACOB Savings Bank (Brussels), Nat West, Skipton, Yorkshire Building Societies (UK), GWB, and Tata Share Registry (TSRL).

Personal life

His father was an

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...

. As a child, Khanna represented his school in badminton and learnt to play Spanish guitar. In college, he was elected class representative by his colleagues.

Awards

Khanna was rated as one of the top global COOs by AdvisoryCloud in 2014.

References

External links

Syntel Executive Leadership Team

Rakesh Khanna on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khanna, Rakesh Living people Indian chief operating officers 1962 births Businesspeople from Mumbai