Anita Chandraprakash
EVP Global Operations
Amsterdam, Netherlands
‘What I love is my team’s desire for innovation, automation and continuous improvement’
I recently transitioned to a new role as EVP Global Operations based in the Netherlands, but for the last 4.5 years, I was the Managing Director of Chennai Operations and led a team of more than 500 people with a unified goal to become a centre of excellence for providing high-quality services to our customers.
Our customer pool is diverse - spanning from researchers and doctors to academic and government institutions - so it is important to build a skilled and robust workforce that is able to deliver to their expectations. Building a vibrant team and creating a suitable work environment for the team to perform have been my underlying passions.
What I love is my team’s desire for innovation, automation and continuous improvement. These are important elements for our success. I enjoy designing more efficient work processes, achieving quicker turnaround times, improving quality of our services and pleasing customers. Working in Operations has always kindled my passion and I am excited about my new role managing Global Operations.
Prior to my role in Chennai, I was on a secondment in Amsterdam for about a year and a half where I headed teams in both Amsterdam and St. Louis. I enjoyed working with our colleagues in different geographies as I learnt and benefitted from capitalising on their skills, styles, perspectives, opinions, ideas and experiences. The secondment not only helped me mature as a manager with a global outlook, but also made me more independent and self-reliant. I believe that management is all about people – hiring, retaining and developing the best. This thinking triggered me to specialise in Human Resources in my MBA. I have partnered with our HR team to build diversity and inclusion into our recruitment strategy.
I also encourage people to make a difference to society not only through their day-to-day work, but also through RE Cares initiatives, like mentoring programmes for underprivileged kids.
Outside of work, I love planning weekend getaways with my son and star gazing – which I guess is driven by my interest in astronomy.