Pune, Maharashtra, India, December 2025 — DRISHTEE has appointed Santanu Ghoshal as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), effective November 2025. In this part-time leadership role, Santanu will work closely with the organization’s leadership team to build a robust culture and talent ecosystem aligned with Drishtee’s mission of fostering sustainability and shared prosperity across rural India.
In his new role as CHRO at DRISHTEE, Santanu Ghoshal will focus on strengthening organizational culture, attracting and engaging high-quality talent, and enabling people strategies that support Drishtee’s long-term vision of empowering communities through livelihood generation, micro-enterprise development, and inclusive growth.
Alongside this responsibility, Santanu is currently serving as Executive Director at Gray Matter Consulting, where he works as an independent HR and leadership advisor. Prior to this, he held the role of President – Organization Development at Walchandnagar Industries Limited, where, during a short but impactful tenure, he redesigned the organization structure in line with evolving business priorities, onboarded senior leadership roles, and concluded a long-pending labour union settlement.
Before Walchandnagar, Santanu Ghoshal spent nearly 14 years at Schaeffler, serving as Chief Human Resources Officer and Head – CSR. In this role, he led HR and CSR for Schaeffler India, aligning people strategy with business objectives, building a future-ready talent ecosystem, managing complex labour relations, supporting mergers and integrations, and strengthening employer branding and HR technology adoption.
Earlier in his career, Santanu held senior HR leadership roles at General Motors, where he led HR for GM’s greenfield plant at Talegaon, The Timken Company, where he played a key role in talent strategy and setting up shared services and research operations in India, and Exide Industries Limited, where he contributed to employee relations, SAP HR implementation, and corporate HR initiatives. He began his professional journey at Crompton Greaves and earlier worked as a Mining Engineer at Hindustan Copper Limited.
About DRISHTEE
Drishtee is a pioneering social enterprise that has been working for over two decades to foster sustainability and shared prosperity in rural India. With a presence across thousands of villages in states including Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and several other regions, Drishtee focuses on empowering women and families through micro-enterprise development, livelihood generation, and essential service delivery. The organization acts as a facilitator for community-led development, working in close collaboration with local stakeholders to build self-reliant rural ecosystems.
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