Neelam Dhawan to lead IBM India’s 1st Advisory Board

IBM, for the first time, has set up an advisory board for India led by former HP India head Neelam Dhawan to work with its current local head Karan Bajwa to drive growth for the company in the decade ahead.

The IBM India Advisory Board — which also includes Bajwa, Harriet Green, chairman of IBM Asia Pacific, and senior members from IBM Global — will offer strategic advice across different areas including the company’s investments, work with the government, and engage with employees in the country, the company said.

“The advisory gives us that additional muscle in terms of looking across the board and advising the business on the areas to focus,” said Bajwa, managing director at IBM India.


“It’s the uniqueness which is encouraging us to create a board of this nature which advices the businesses and global functions on things we can do for the future and which can prepare IBM for growth for the next decade,” he told ET. IBM has a local business arm with over $5 billion revenues, the largest for a tech firm in the country. India houses one-third of IBM’s global workforce — nearly 100,000 people delivering services for its global operations, besides a country chosen for its research labs.

Dhawan will work with the board to provide advice and counsel to important India-wide agenda, such as external and government relations, C-suite relations, business development, talent acquisition, inclusiveness and diversity, employee engagement, risk and compliance management, site strategy, and transformation and synergy as One IBM.

“We are there to help each other,” Dhawan said. “The India advisory board recognises the strategic importance of India to IBM globally — as a source of growth and innovation, as a global delivery hub, and also because of the number of developers, the rise of startups and a young millennial workforce,” she told ET.