Gowri Kustagi

Bangalore, India
+91-8105533924
LinkedIn Profile
gowrikustagi1@gmail.com

PROFILE: Heading Leadership & Talent Development for AMEA region, with 25 years of relevant experience. Core
expertise in Strategic Business Partnership, Leadership Development, DE&I, Coaching and Change Management,
across Manufacturing, Software Products & KPO, in industries panning Engineering, Healthcare, Supply Chain &
Financial Analysis. Core focus on organizational development, talent transformation and learning systems
integration, topped with a Senior Management Program from IIM Ahmedabad.
MINDSET: Strong in collaboration, coaching, influencing, stakeholder management, communication, intuitiveness,
project management and strategic thinking (as per my Gallup CliftonStrengths & MBTI profiles); I thrive in developing
organisational culture, project & program management, leadership coaching, stakeholder management and talent
development… essentially a people engagement mindset.
CAREER PROGRESSION Nov’16-To Date
Sep’13-Oct’16 India L&D CoE Lead
Apr’06-Feb‘12 Training Manager AMEA Learning Partner
Mar’04-Dec’05 Learning Leader
Oct’01-Mar’04 Sr Learning Spclst
Apr’95-Sep’01 Sr Consultant
Junior Executive
Training Manager

CORE COMPETENCIES ACHIEVEMENTS

• Strategic Talent Partnering
• Performance Consulting
• Change Management
• Leadership Development
• Coaching & Mentoring
• Organisational Development
• Project Management
• Head Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
• Training Lifecycle Management
• L&D as a profit centre
• Learning Systems Integration
• Global Team Management
• Certified:
- Clifton StrengthFinder Coach
- MBTI Practioner
- Prosci Change Practioner
- DDI facilitator
➢ Owned DE&I strategy for ABB across AMEA region & Indian Subcontinent and won several
external awards and internal recognition.
➢ Increased diversity % for ABB India by 50% , female lateral hiring by 10%, female campus
hiring by 5% and reduced female attrition by 9% over 3 years.
➢ Setup the L&D CoE function from scratch for ABB India on its journey to develop 2000+
leaders and 10,000 employees offering over 1.2 person days of learning.
➢ Designed and developed leadership development strategy impacting >500+ leaders at all
levels including HiPos and women leaders
➢ Managed L&D in India as Profit Center, wherein 100% of costs were recovered, plus
generated over INR20M ($300k) profit.
➢ Launched Learning Services as AES, the first client footprint for Cerner India.
➢ Established L&D CoE at Manhattan Associates. Program managed soft skills, leadership dev
and technical trg for over 2000 employees.
➢ Managed global teams and led cross geography projects, with multiple stake holders
➢ Led L&D change management for Cerner millennium transition project for over 12 months
for 2500+ employees
➢ On boarded over 1500 employees in Reuters delivering and managing delivery of process and
soft skill trg
➢ Awarded India’s 100 Top Training & Development Minds by World HRD Congress

EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS & AWARDS

• 100 Top Training & Development Minds
• IIM Ahmedabad – Sr Management Program
• Gallup Clifton StrengthFinder Coach
• MBTI Practioner
• Prosci Change Practioner
• DDI Facilitator
• WGSHA – Bachelors in Hotel Management
INTERESTS
• Active industry & NHRD forums participation
• Talent & Leadership Development speaker & round table moderator
• DE&I speaker & champion

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CAREER DETAILS
ABB Indian Subcontinent Nov 2016 - Present
ABB AMEA - Process Automation
Leadership Dev & OD, Talent & Learning and DE&I Leader
With the accomplishments in my role as CoE lead in ABB Indian Subcontinent, I transitioned to ABB Process
Automation as a Global Talent, Learning and D&I lead for AMEA region.
Key Responsibilities & Accomplishments:
• Built strategy to address gaps in critical skills and knowledge needed to execute business strategy, through collaboration with
businesses both local & global; impacted learning delivery by promoting new planning & delivery solutions
• Built a 360D learning and lifelong learning culture for ABB in India and in AMEA Region and supporting the business client in
the area of L&D and competency development
• Designed and Implement best in class ABB Leadership Development portfolio
• Crafted & implemented L&D strategy as a Profit center; 100% of costs were recovered, plus generated over INR2Cr ($3K) profit.
• Influenced managers at all levels to adopt and support effective approaches to L&D and drive future learning strategies
• Led successful interventions to address L&D needs of niche target audience (Top 100 leaders, HiPos and Women Leaders)
• Set up L&D SOPs and reporting frameworks to provide analytics to the business on time and money invested on learning.
• Delivered Change Management and other OD interventions to support major organisation changes
• Designed and delivered the DE&I strategy for ABB in India and Process Automation
• Program managed the DE&I Agenda by Increasing diversity % for ABB India by 50% , female lateral hiring by 10%, female campus
hiring by 5% and reduced female attrition by 9% over 3 years
• Built ABB India EVP in the area of DE&I : Received recognition on various platforms for DE&I initiatives
• Avtar & Working Mother Top 100 Best Companies for Women In India – 2020, an Exemplar of Inclusion India – 2020
• Breaking New Grounds” at the Global Diversity Equity and Inclusion Summit 4.0

Manhattan Associates Sept 2013 to Oct 2016

Training Manager
Key Responsibilities & Accomplishments
• Led talent and learning & development strategy for the business and set up a learning function from ground up to deliver soft
skills as well as technical skills training for 2000 employees. This enabled the organisation to be ready with skills required to
deliver products and service to customers world wide
• Implemented the leadership development academy for Manhattan Associates to enable leaders in the India organisation to be
ready for future roles
• Implemented the Learning Management System to help achieve operational efficiency for the L&D Function. And provide a
learning platform for end users
• Led Change Management initiative from India office to enable organization to roll out new processes and adopt cultural change
• Built and implemented a Competency Development Framework for the organization in India
• Collaborated with and influenced stakeholders in the design of learning solutions and learning methodologies to deliver the
solutions and help make, build or buy decisions

Cerner Healthcare Solutions Apr 2006 - Feb 2012

Program / Learning Head
Key Responsibilities & Accomplishments:
• Launched strategic Talent Development initiatives to address key business challenges of early attrition and to optimize training
costs; successfully reduced attrition by 4%% over 3years.
• Identified organisational L&D Gaps and devised & implemented solutions to bridge the same. Led L&D projects in setting up
ODC in Bangalore for transitioning Cerner Millennium (Cerner’s flagship product) to India.
• Cerner was recognized as ATD’s Best in 2016 for best practices followed in implementing the learning strategies.
• Built and implemented Learning & Education projects that strategically align to the employee and organizational development
using the Blended Learning approach in developing Organizational Behaviour Change models
• Championed Learning projects by visualizing, planning & executing for achieving organisational growth in India from client
perspective
• Successfully launched Learning Services for India as AES, the first client footprint in India for Cerner

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Reuters India Mar 2004 - Dec 2005
Senior Learning Specialist
Key Responsibilities & Accomplishments:
• Responsible for Transition of Reuters Global programs to Bangalore, planning Training Calendar, implementing Learning
projects and conducting onboarding programs for >1000 employees.
• Effectively implemented Learning projects like Siebel CRM Training for the site.
• Coached and mentored junior trainers, involved in conducting Needs Analysis, Gaps Identification, as well as designing and
developing courses on Process & Soft skills

Stimulus Consulting Oct 2001 - Mar 2004

Senior Consultant
Key Responsibilities & Accomplishments:
• Responsible to conduct the Pre Training Needs Analysis, Soft Skills trainings and Post Training follow up & support.
• Tasked with creating Training content/material and marketing the training modules to new opportunities and in developing
and delivering training courses for clients internationally
• Responsible for planning and managing Business Development activities for training and related products. Enhanced the
revenue generation for the organization through business development and delivering training programs.
• Conducted soft skills trainings at Infosys, HP, Intel, KPMG, Mahindra & Mahindra, Robert Bosch, SAP Labs, Deutsche Bank, TNT
worldwide, Akzo Nobel, Glaxo Smithkline, Apar Technologies, Symphony Services, National Semiconductors, Telelogic, Tata
teleservices, KPMG etc

Le Meridien, Bangalore (5 star Hotel) Apr 1995 - Sep 2001

Training Manager
Valley View International, Manipal (4 star hotel)
Junior Executive
Key Responsibilities & Accomplishments:
• Championed this customer service initiative ‘Commitment to Excellence’ Initiative in terms of awareness about standardizing
the various service life cycles, their integration and subsequent roll out of procedures & policies
• Set up the training function from the scratch and managed the training function for the entire organization
• Successfully conducted soft skill training programs like Train the trainer, Presentation skills, customer service
• Defined and implemented a systematic Induction/Orientation process for all new employees

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