Serentica Renewables has appointed Annapurna J as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO).
“I am excited to join Serentica at a time when the clean energy sector is reshaping India’s growth story,” said Annapurna J on her appointment. “Serentica’s vision of enabling industrial decarbonisation through sustainable energy is inspiring, and I look forward to contributing to its journey by building a strong culture, empowering talent, and creating an agile future-ready organisation.”
Based in Mumbai, Annapurna will report to Ruhie Pande, Group CHRO and CMO at Serentica Renewables, Resonia, and Sterlite Electric. Her mandate covers people strategy, organisational development, leadership pipeline development, and talent transformation as the company scales its clean energy operations across India.
Welcoming the appointment, Ruhie Pande said, “We are delighted to welcome Annapurna to Serentica. Her deep expertise in building future-ready organisations, nurturing leadership talent, and driving transformative people strategies will be invaluable as we continue our growth journey. People and culture remain central to our mission, and Annapurna’s leadership will help us build a high-performing, purpose-led organisation that accelerates India’s clean energy transition.”
Annapurna brings over 24 years of HR leadership experience across conglomerates, listed companies, and high-growth businesses. Most recently, she served as Group Head – Talent Management and Diversity & Inclusion at Mahindra & Mahindra, where she strengthened succession governance, built leadership pipelines, and drove diversity initiatives across the group.
Before Mahindra, she held a senior HR leadership role at Vodafone Idea, where she led digital HR transformation and employee value proposition redesign. Her work on post-merger cultural integration at the telecom operator was later featured as a Harvard Business School case study. Her career also spans M&A integration, enterprise-wide change management, and succession planning across multiple sectors.
She holds a PGDM from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, and a BCom (Hons) from the University of Calcutta. She is also an alumna of IIM Calcutta.
