Dabur Research Foundation has appointed Priyanka Gaur as its head of human resources, bringing the contract research organisation an HR leader with more than two decades across people strategy, executive search, and business roles. She moves from FyneHand, where she was an associate partner.
Gaur’s path through HR hasn’t been a straight line, and that’s part of what she brings. She started at JLL in 2003 in HR and administration, then moved through Hindustan Times and NDTV, where she handled compensation and benefits. She led learning and development at Escorts Kubota from 2011 to 2014, ran her own hiring and talent consultancy until 2016, and then headed HR at Proterial, where she set up four digital knowledge centres across India by 2018. A five-year stint at Reliance Entertainment in strategic alliances and sales followed, before she returned to senior search at NGS Global and FyneHand.
At Dabur, Gaur will lead the HR function with a focus on building teams, shaping culture, and developing the next layer of leaders.
Dabur Research Foundation is the research arm of FMCG major Dabur India, working in pharmaceutical and Ayurvedic R&D. The HR head role sits at the centre of a science-led organisation where retaining specialist talent is a constant pressure.
Gaur has completed executive education at UCLA Anderson and IIM Kozhikode, and is currently pursuing an LLB to sharpen her grasp of the legal side of business. The cross-functional background, HR plus sales plus search, is unusual for the role. How that translates inside a research-driven culture is the thing to watch.
