Brands
Mukta Nakra takes charge as Crocs India’s new HR head
MUMBAI: Crocs India has appointed Mukta Nakra as its head of human resources, marking a significant leadership addition as the brand looks to deepen its talent capabilities and scale its India operations. She joins the company after an extensive career spent shaping people strategy across global retail, fashion, banking and technology organisations.
Nakra steps into the role from Marks and Spencer Reliance India, where she spent more than seven years as head of human resources and sustainability. There, she oversaw people strategy for more than 100 stores across 37 cities and played a key role in strengthening the employer brand, taking the company’s Great Place to Work ranking from 82nd to 13th. She worked closely with the leadership team to drive workforce planning, succession pipelines, digital capability building and frontline development while also steering the company’s sustainability mandate.
Before M&S, she led talent strategy at Wiley as talent director for the Asia Pacific region while also serving as the India HR head. She partnered global teams during Wiley’s shift toward digital learning, focusing on building leadership, strengthening skills and aligning HR priorities with new business models.
Nakra earlier spent more than three years at American Express as director – market HR, supporting the company’s consumer, commercial and merchant businesses. She led enterprise-wide talent and learning for 12,000 employees and drove several culture, inclusion and leadership programmes, including the multi-company women’s leadership initiative Reach Out.
Her longest stint was at Walmart India, where she held progressive roles across compensation, talent and corporate HR for nearly six years. She helped shape rewards architecture, leadership pipelines, capability frameworks and people operations during the company’s high-growth retail and cash-and-carry years.
Nakra began her HR journey at ABN AMRO and ACES, where she led compensation, performance management and HR transformation projects, including the setup of HR shared services and system transitions.
With more than two decades of experience spanning retail, financial services, publishing and global capability centres, Nakra is expected to play a central role in shaping Crocs India’s people strategy as the brand expands its footprint and strengthens its talent engine.
Brands
HSBC names Gautam Anand to head global India private banking unit
The bank taps a 25-year veteran to run its franchise as the war for wealthy NRI clients heats up
MUMBAI: HSBC has handed Gautam Anand the keys to its global India private banking business, betting that a seasoned operator can squeeze more out of one of the world’s most lucrative pools of offshore wealth.
Anand, who joined HSBC Private Bank in December 2023 as global co-ordinator for Global India, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, steps up to lead the franchise outright. He will run the operation across India and its key international outposts in Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Kingdom, putting him squarely in the middle of the corridors through which Indian money flows abroad.
The appointment is a signal of intent. HSBC only launched its global private banking business in India in 2023, pitching hard at high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients as part of a broader assault on Asian wealth management. The bank now wants Anand to turn that beachhead into a fortress.
He comes well-armed. Before HSBC, Anand clocked time at UBS, Credit Suisse, ANZ and ABN Amro, a CV that reads like a roll-call of the banks that have long competed to manage the fortunes of India’s affluent diaspora.
With Indian wealth exploding at home and spreading fast across global financial centres, the race to capture it is only getting fiercer. HSBC is backing Anand to make sure it does not finish second.
