When you speak with leaders who’ve worked closely with Bhavna Batra, one theme comes up again and again: she doesn’t just “do HR” — she reframes how organisations think about talent, transformation and the future of work.
Over more than two decades, Bhavna has built a distinctive career at the intersection of people strategy, business transformation and ecosystem building. From consulting boardrooms and promoter families on growth and change, to leading global people strategy for S&P Global’s Enterprise Data organisation, her work reflects a rare blend of systems thinking, empathy and execution discipline.
Her leadership philosophy leans on a powerful idea inspired by Charles Darwin: it is not strength or intelligence alone that determines success, but adaptability. For Bhavna, that adaptability shows up as curiosity, courage, and the willingness to constantly refresh how we think about organisations, identity, experience and inclusion.
Building Transformation Muscles: From Consulting Rooms to Corporate Corridors
Before stepping into her current role at S&P Global as Vice President – People and Global HR Head for the Enterprise Data organisation, Bhavna spent several years helping organisations reimagine themselves from the outside in. At PwC India, as Managing Director in the Management Consulting business and part of the leadership team of the People & Organisation practice, she partnered with CXOs, promoters and boards to architect growth agendas that were talent-led, structure-led, process-led and culture-led.
Her work cut across Indian conglomerates, multinational corporations and promoter-led enterprises. Whether the challenge was scaling rapidly, integrating acquisitions, or rethinking operating models, Bhavna anchored transformation on three pillars:
- Clarity of purpose and growth thesis
- Organisational design aligned to strategy
- Leadership and culture capable of sustaining change
Earlier, at Genpact, as Vice President – Human Resources, she led the global Organisation and Staffing Centre of Excellence, owning performance management and talent review processes worldwide, including technology-enabled solutions for promotions, succession planning and leadership pipelines. In parallel, she served as HR Leader for Genpact’s global Finance and Internal Transformation functions, partnering with leadership to shape structure, culture and capability for high-growth, high-complexity environments.
These roles honed a signature capability that would define her later work: connecting enterprise-wide design questions with real human experiences on the ground.
S&P Global: People Strategy for a Data-Driven Future
In 2021, Bhavna joined S&P Global and today serves as Vice President – People, leading people strategy for the Enterprise Data organisation. In this role, she operates at the heart of a business that fuels global markets with information, analytics and insight — and she ensures that its talent architecture is equally future-ready.
Her remit includes:
- Designing and driving people strategy in a post-merger context (following the IHS Markit integration)
- Shaping culture and engagement across geographies and functions
- Leading people experience programs that align to evolving expectations of a global, diverse workforce
- Orchestrating organisation design, talent management and succession planning in a rapidly shifting data and technology landscape
Across all of this, Bhavna brings what colleagues often describe as a “head-and-heart” approach: intensely analytical in framing problems, yet deeply human in how decisions land on people and teams.
Ecosystem Leadership: From NHRDN to Business Schools and Beyond
Bhavna’s impact extends well beyond corporate corridors into the broader HR and leadership ecosystem.
As Secretary and Executive Committee Member of the NHRDN Delhi & NCR Chapter and Leader of a National Strategic Group at NHRDN, she has been a key voice in reshaping how the HR community learns, collaborates and tells its own stories.
The recently launched NHRDN Delhi & NCR coffee table book, “HR Leaders of the New Millennia”, is one example of that vision in action. Conceived as a movement rather than a one-time publication, it champions authentic journeys of CHROs — not as award narratives, but as real stories of courage, conviction and impact that younger professionals can learn from.
Her commitment to the next generation is equally visible in academia and mentoring:
- International Advisory and Curriculum Review Committee Member for the executive MBA programme at MDI Gurgaon
- Strategic Mentoring Board Member at Manav Rachna Educational Institutions
- Active engagement with students across institutions, advocating for a more nuanced view of ambition, success and wellbeing for Gen Z and emerging professionals
Through these roles, she consistently reinforces a message that is both simple and demanding: experience must translate into impact — for individuals, organisations and society.
A Thought Leader on Identity, Inclusion and the Experience Ecosystem
Bhavna’s writing and research further illustrate her depth of thinking. Her work spans topics such as:
- Identity and belonging in an increasingly complex socio-cultural and economic landscape (“The Identity Equation”)
- Reimagining the experience ecosystem for employees and customers in an era of AI, hybrid work and shifting expectations
- Inclusion and belongingness as a live, everyday code rather than a policy or program
- Future-ready organisations, leadership capabilities and demographic shifts in India and beyond
These pieces reflect her ability to connect macro trends, organisational realities and human stories — and then distil them into frameworks that leaders can actually use.
A Leadership Signature: Adaptability, Relationship Intelligence and Courage
What truly distinguishes Bhavna is the way she holds paradoxes:
- Big-picture strategy and ground-level empathy
- Data-driven insight and nuanced emotional intelligence
- Respect for legacy and a willingness to challenge the status quo
Her posts often highlight lessons from students, emerging professionals and young leaders. She invites senior leaders to see divergent thinking not as threat, but as raw material for reimagining what’s possible. She urges organisations to treat curiosity, dissent and wellbeing not as “nice-to-have” but as integral to sustainable performance.
Across nearly twenty years of leadership, the pattern is clear:
- She helps organisations see themselves more honestly
- She nudges ecosystems to talk more courageously
- And she inspires individuals to author their own growth stories with integrity and intent
For HR TODAY, Bhavna’s journey is a powerful reminder that HR, at its best, is not a function — it is a force that shapes identity, experience and the future of work.
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