Rakesh Khanna

Background

Khanna was born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, a central state of India, and grew up in suburban Mumbai.

Education

He completed his Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) degree from Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute (VJTI), Mumbai, following which he did M.B.A (Marketing) from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai.

Career

Appointed chief operating officer in January 2012, Khanna is responsible for the operation of Syntel"s Business Units, Horizontal Practices, Centers of Excellence and Human Resources. He previously served as a President of Syntel"s Banking and Financial Services Business Unit from 2005 until 2012. He was also part of the Syntel executive advisory team that shaped Syntel"s BPO business.

Prior to Syntel, Khanna was part of the leadership team at I-flex Solutions.

He has also worked with Tata Burroughs Limited where he managed projects in the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Malaysia and India for several banks and financial groups. Khanna has over 30 years of experience in the technology services industry and has held a variety of leadership roles in North America, Europe and Asia.

Before being appointed chief operating officer in January 2012, he was the President of the Banking and Financial Services Business Unit at where he successfully led the vertical from 2005 until 2012, building the foundation for future growth by infusing business domain knowledge into Information Technology expertise. He was on the Supervisory Board of Login Systems Société Anonyme, France, in which I-flex acquired a strategic stake in 2003.

He also set up operations in Japan and Europe, leading and managing various elements of the operations in those countries.

Other roles included leading sales in the Middle East and Europe, head of product marketing for its banking product, and Global Relationship Director for a roll out of their product at General Electric Consumer Finance in 43 countries. Khanna worked with Citicorp CITIL managing sales and marketing of software products for 10 years. He has also worked with Tata Burroughs Limited for over a decade.

He started as a mainframe programmer with the company and rose through the levels to become Group Manager.

During his tenure, he managed projects for several banks and financial groups, including BACOB Savings Bank (Brussels), National West, Skipton, Yorkshire Building Societies (United Kingdom), GWB, and Tata Share Registry (TSRL).

Achievements

• Rakesh Khanna has been consistently rated as one of the top global COOs by ExecRank, Incorporated.

Membership

He is a member of the Academic Council and Board of Studies for Information Technology, NMIMS, one of the top business schools in India. Prior to joining Syntel in 2005, he worked with Oracle Financial Services Software Limited (formerly I-flex Solutions Limited), where he was a member of the leadership team and spent 10 years in various roles.