Vineet Nayar

Vineet Nayar is the former CEO of HCL Technologies and founder of Sampark Foundation. He is also the author of the highly acclaimed management book "Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down" (Harvard Business Press, June 2010).

Nayar is a recognized management visionary and a radical thinker who architected HCLT’s transformation from $0.7 billion in 2005 to a $4.7 billion global technology services company with over 85,000 employees spread across 32 countries by 2013. This radical transformation led FORTUNE to recognize HCL as “the world’s most modern management” while BusinessWeek named HCLT as “one of the world’s most influential companies." His innovative management practices are taught as case studies at both the Harvard Business School and the London Business School.

Nayar joined HCL in 1985 after earning his MBA from XLRI. In 1993, he founded Comnet and helped it grow into a $1.4 billion dominant leader in technology management services. In 2005, Nayar became president of HCL Technologies and served as the company’s CEO from 2007 until January 2013. During these years, he led a remarkable turnaround of the company, which saw its revenues and market cap grow by six times. Nayar was included in FORTUNE magazine’s first-ever global “Executive Dream Team” in 2012 and the "Thinkers50 2011/12 List" as the only “practitioner thinker.” His book has sold over 100,000 copies worldwide and has received praise from influential thinkers.

In 2004, Nayar established Sampark Foundation, which aims to transform the lives of children, youth, and adults through large-scale programs in education, social entrepreneurship, livelihoods, and climate. His work has earned him a place in Forbes magazine's prestigious '48 Heroes of Philanthropy List 2013' and a “Beacon of Hope” award by 2009 Asha for Education, NYC/NJ Chapter.

Nayar spends his spare time reading and writing on management strategy. He hosts two blogs, a personal one and another for the Harvard Business Review. He continues to share his rich experience in leadership through speaking engagements, focusing on transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, and uses real-life examples to underline his points, making his talks both relatable and convincing.