Directors

Usha Shankar

With over 30 years of diverse professional experience, Usha Shankar is a customer-facing leader with deep domain knowledge and strong techno-functional expertise. Her career has been built on driving business transformation through technology, fostering trusted client relationships, and delivering value-driven solutions. A seasoned mentor, she guides teams, nurtures talent, and shares insights gained from decades of hands-on experience across functional and technical domains. Her blend of strategic thinking, customer empathy, and practical execution has consistently enabled successful outcomes in complex, dynamic business environments.

Ms Aparna Nair

Aparna is a founding member of the Kautilya Leadership Centre and brings over 25 years of experience in leadership development, talent strategy, and organisational consulting. Since 2016, she has played a pivotal role in building the institution by nurturing client relationships, developing proprietary content, and strengthening organisational capabilities.

She advises Boards and senior leadership teams on leadership bench strength, culture alignment, and people strategy. Aparna has designed and facilitated numerous leadership interventions for CXOs across industries and has developed psychometric tools and frameworks to support talent and performance management.

A certified MBTI practitioner and accredited facilitator from SMR, Malaysia, Aparna brings deep expertise in psychometrics, the Balanced Scorecard framework, and executive coaching. Earlier in her career, she held leadership roles at ICICI Bank and Blue Dart–FedEx and has consulted for organisations such as Godrej & Boyce, ICICI Prudential, NCML, and WNS.

Aparna holds an MBA in Marketing and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce.