Rajesh Padmanabhan quits as chief of HR at Vedanta

MUMBAI: Rajesh Padmanabhan has quit as chief human resource officer of metals to miner conglomerate Vedanta Group after 15 months in the job. He had been hired in 2014 by chief executive Tom Albanese to simplify the organisational structure and develop talent for India’s largest oil and mining group that’s owned by billionaire Anil Agarwal.

Albanese informed employees about the departure on Tuesday by email, according to people with knowledge of this. Padmanabhan will be with the group until December, it said. "During his tenure with the group, Rajesh made significant contributions towards organisational architecture, talent management and leadership development,"’ a company spokesperson said in an email. “The company will announce his successor in due course."

Padmanabhan, 53, was involved in shaping Vedanta's strategy to become an innovation-led, patent generating group. The company had recently invigorated its succession planning programme to develop high-potential talents in technical fields such as geology and exploration. It created an Innovation Task Force to lower the cost of production with new technologies.

The biggest HR task ahead of Vedanta is the integration of oil explorer Cairn India with the company once it receives shareholder approvals. With commodity prices down, the group is looking at consolidating businesses. Several group companies are either cutting capital expenditure or jobs to remain competitive in the low-price, high-cost environment.

"The company is looking more towards internal hiring and growth wherever possible," Padmanabhan had told ET in an earlier interaction. "Vedanta would look for external hires only at entry level and super specialised jobs."

Prior to joining Vedanta, Padmanabhan was chief human resources officer for software outsourcing firm Capgemini India for four years. He has over three decades of global industry experience in finance, systems and human resources in companies such as Patni Computer Systems, The Oberoi Group, Essel Propack and the ICICI Group in different roles. This was his first stint in a commodities company.