Nitin Rakesh, an

Indian-American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, who are also referred to as "Indians" or "Am ...

businessman, author, and philanthropist, is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Mphasis. Prior to that, Rakesh was Syntel's CEO and president, as well as CEO and Managing Director of Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company Ltd., and as Chief Executive of State Street Syntel Services, a joint venture between Syntel and State Street Bank.

Early life and education

Rakesh grew up in a small town on the outskirts of

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

and was active in sports and athletics. In high school, he was a Quiz master as well as an active member in student leadership. He completed his schooling from Apeejay School, Faridabad and St. Joseph's Convent, graduating in 1989. He moved to Delhi to earn his

Bachelor of Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded to a college graduate majoring in an engineering discipline at a higher education institution. In the United Kingdom, a Ba ...

degree in Computer Science from Delhi Institute of Technology DIT (now Netaji Subhas University of Technology NSUT). Rakesh completed his Master's in Management Studies from SVKM's NMIMS, Mumbai in 1995. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School's CEO Workshop.

Career

In his early career, Rakesh worked for

Unit Trust of India UTI Asset Management Company (UTI AMC) is one of India's leading asset management companies. It manages mutual funds, portfolio management services, and retirement solutions for individual and institutional investors. UTI Mutual Fund was launch ...

, setting up offshore

mutual funds A mutual fund is an investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV in Europe ('investmen ...

and a secondary Market Research Cell, Product Development and

Risk Management Risk management is the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks, followed by the minimization, monitoring, and control of the impact or probability of those risks occurring. Risks can come from various sources (i.e, Threat (sec ...

. He also worked with TCG Group, a transnational

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

and investments firm as the Head of Banking & Financial Services Sales at TCG Software Services. From 2002 to 2008, Rakesh was employed at Syntel in various capacities. During his tenure, he founded Syntel's Business Process Outsourcing practice, building it into a significant contributor to Syntel's overall revenue. He was named vice president and head of B&FS BPO operations at Syntel in February 2006. He was promoted to

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Syntel's

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

, State Street Syntel Services, where he led its India operations until 2008. In September 2008, he was named CEO and managing director of Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company Ltd., a financial services company that specializes in

exchange-traded fund An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that is also an exchange-traded product, i.e., it is traded on stock exchanges. ETFs own financial assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, debts, futures contracts, and/or comm ...

s (ETF) and separate accounts. During Rakesh's tenure, the company was named "Most Innovative ETF, Asia Pacific" at the 2011 ETF Awards in New York, and the "Most Innovative Mutual Fund, India" in 2010 at the

CRISIL CRISIL Limited, formerly Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited, is an Indian analytical company providing ratings, research, and risk and policy advisory services and is a subsidiary of American company S&P Global S&P Global ...

- S&P Mutual Fund Awards.2010 CRISIL Mutual Fund Award Winners
CNBC-TV18-CRISIL Mutual Fund Awards. In September 2012, he left Motilal Oswal to become president, Americas for Syntel, where he managed Business Development and Nearshoring Center for Syntel's

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

n operations. He was named CEO and President of Syntel, in April 2014. He officially resigned Syntel on 4 November 2016.

Mphasis

Rakesh was named CEO and Executive Director Mphasis on 29 January 2017. He took over from Ganesh Ayyar. In the first year of taking on the mantle as the CEO of Mphasis, he introduced Mphasis’ C= X2C2 =1 TM formula for success, (hyper-personalization; drive n=1 powered by Cloud & Cognitive); driving multi-dimensions of business value with an integrated consumer-centric Front to Back Digital Transformation TM, enabling Business Operations, Technology Transformation and Service Transformation, driven by IP assets. Under Nitin's leadership, Mphasis set a record for the highest new deal wins in the history of the company, thus re-defining benchmarks and growing above industry rate. In early 2017, Rakesh was instrumental in the setting up of Mphasis Sparkles, an innovation lab, that offers startups a platform to showcase innovative solutions to large enterprises and incorporate such products into Mphasis solutions.

Works/Publications

Nitin Rakesh has authored a book “Transformation in Times of Crisis – Eight Principles for Creating Opportunities and Value in the Post-Pandemic World.” with Jerry Wind, an internationally renowned and award-winning academic and the Lauder Professor Emeritus and Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. The book was launched virtually on 3 December 2020 and outlines 8 principles businesses can use to make the most of opportunities in the midst of crisis. The book was dedicated to the COVID-19 heroes and proceeds from the sales went to Doctors with Borders and the Mphasis F1 Foundation.

Awards and recognition

* Bronze Stevie Award for “Tech Innovator of the Year” in May 2021 by the Annual American Business Awards® 2021 * Silver Stevie Award as Best Business Book - Transformation in Times of Crisis in May 2021 by the Annual American Business Awards® * International Business Book of the year 2021 - Transformation in Times of Crisis in May 2021 by the Business Book Awards. * Gold Stevie Award for Tech Innovator of the Year – Services in May 2019 by the American Business Awards & International Business Awards 2019 * Gold Stevie Award for Executive of the Year - Computer Services in May 2018 by the International Business Awards 2018, under the Management award category. *‘2018 Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business’ Award by the Asian American Business Development Center (AABDC)

Boards and Committees

*Rakesh is an active member of various institutions globally, such as: *US – India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) driving financial services council and business relations between US and India *NASSCOM as Executive Council and Chair of the IT Services Council, charted to future proof IT services industry *Knowledge@Wharton, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania's advisory board, driving digital transformation discussions at grass root level *Wall Street Journal (WSJ) CEO Council, to debate and formulate strategies to address the biggest issues facing global business and leadership *Forbes Technology Council (FTC) as an industry expert and practitioner to advise Forbes’ readers globally on current as well as future technologies and trends. *Ashoka University as a Trustee focusing on multidisciplinary liberal education. *Plaksha University as a Founder and Trustee.

Personal life

Nitin and his family live in New York. He is an avid reader and

Yuval Noah Harari Yuval Noah Harari ( ; born 1976) is an Israeli medievalist, military historian, public intellectual, and popular science writer. He currently serves as professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His first bestse ...

in one of his favourite authors. His other interests also include tennis, cricket, vintage bikes, and automobiles.

References

External links

Challenges for new Mphasis CEO
BTVI
Industry has much deeper capabilities, says Nitin Rakesh, CEO, Mphasis

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. Owned by The Times Group, ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961 and it is sold in all major cities in India. As of 2012, it is the world's secon ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rakesh, Nitin Businesspeople from New Delhi Living people Apeejay School alumni Year of birth missing (living people)