Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, December 2025 – Vrinda Taneja has joined Novartis as Director – People & Organisation for the International India business, where she will contribute to advancing Novartis’ purpose of reimagining medicine and fostering a culture grounded in its values of being Inspired, Curious, Unbossed, and acting with Integrity. Based in Mumbai, Vrinda will support people and organizational strategies across Novartis’ international India operations.
Before joining Novartis, Vrinda Taneja served as VP HR – Technology at Vodafone Idea Limited for over a year, where she played a key role in leading the people strategy for the technology function, based in Mumbai.
Earlier, she worked at AkzoNobel as HR Leader – Commercial (Paints & Coatings) and R&D, where she was part of the India Paints & Coatings Management Team. She led HR for over 1,500 employees across commercial and R&D functions and managed a team of HR business partners across India.
Prior to that, Vrinda had a distinguished decade-long tenure at Unilever, where she held various senior HR roles including Regional HR Manager for Sales – East India, Unit HR Manager for the R&D Centre, and HR Business Partner for Marketing (Home Care & CMCO). She was part of multiple leadership teams and led critical capability and people initiatives across the organization.
Vrinda began her early HR career with international stints at Royal Bank of Scotland Business and Deutsche Postbank AG in the UK, and also worked in India as a Marketing Summer Trainee at ITC Limited. These formative experiences laid a strong foundation for her deep expertise in strategic HR, talent management, and organizational transformation.
About Novartis
Novartis is a leading global medicines company, committed to reimagining medicine to improve and extend people’s lives. With its presence in over 150 countries, Novartis reaches more than 250 million people with innovative therapies each year. Anchored in its core values — Inspired, Curious, Unbossed, and Integrity — the company fosters a culture of innovation, collaboration, and purpose-driven leadership across its global workforce.
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