They weren’t wrong when they said that ‘Kindness pays.’ What started with a noble cause took our protagonist to the pinnacle of success, quite literally.

This is the story of Ashish Mittal, a young HR professional who made waves early in his career and continued his stride winning accolades.

Unlike most people who consider taking up a CSR job in the fag-end of their career, Ashish started his stance 24 years ago with “The Akshaya Patra Foundation” as its Head of Public Relations and Human Resources. The goal? “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger”. 

Ashish’s dedication and determination played a pivotal role in the Organisation to achieve their humongous goal. This Mid-Day Meal Programme which started in a very small & a humble way in June 2000 by serving mid-day meals to merely 1,500 children across 5 Government schools in Bengaluru, (Karnataka) today proudly reaches out to 20,10,516 children across 22,367 schools of the country covering 15 States & 2 Union Territories of India providing them with freshly cooked meal from over 66 kitchens on all school days. 

As a person who strongly believes in the joy of giving back to the community, he saw the project grow right from its genesis, scaling greater heights & coverage year after year nationally as well as internationally.  

 Fueled with the passion to make a difference to people’s lives, Ashish went on to Head Project Genesis at Infosys BPM and remained an instrumental part of the Organization for 5 years and moved across different HR functions, with Senior Lead – BPHR as his last role. During his tenure, he was responsible for training more than 10,000 Academicians, provided employment to nearly 40,000 graduates and supported over a hundred thousand students. He was also an integral contributor to the Special Education Project between World Bank and Infosys, making significant impact in the education space while working very closely with the Government of Bhutan.

Interacting with highly intellectual people across the Globe, learning & drafting HR policies, handling employee matters for TSO (Technology Solution Optimization) Unit employees who operated from 9 DC ‘S (Development Centers), and worked at different time zones became his areas of expertise.  

With that came working with new technologies, as tremendous learning, fun at work, discovering his talent, very high job satisfaction, sports facilities & work-life balance defined his tenure at Infosys. 

One of the key challenges for Ashish was “Hiring Academicians” across the globe during his role as the Head HR of Manipal International University (MIU), Malaysia. A Greenfield project, he launched several HR strategic initiatives right from Talent Acquisition to Talent Management and Talent Retention, which helped him meet the demanding business needs. 

Heading a very diverse, multi-racial & and a multi-cultural workforce came with its set of challenges as each day brought in different people-related complexities from different perspectives. 

 Currently he is working as the Group – CHRO, Sreenidhi Educational Group. Ashish strongly believes in work life balance. He is an avid backpacker having covered 25 + Countries, scuba diver, skydiver, cyclist, badminton player, swimmer & a marathon runner. 

He calls HR the “Heart Rate” of the Organization. Every single second how employees feel, how employees are treated & how employees behave right from the top to the bottom play & have a very significant impact on the Organisation, its culture & determine the overall “Organisation Health”, he said. 

It’s not about what you get from an achievement, but who you become from it.