Leadership Hiring, Reimagined.
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Client Speak
Averatek is a nanotechnology company whose materials support advanced electronics and other end uses. We needed a new leadership team which could drive the company into rapidly growing markets in Asia. Anu quickly identified strong candidates, and then assisted us in reaching an agreement with an excellent CEO. We are pleased with the new direction for the company, and grateful for Anu’s help in completing this process.
“Ketera was a silicon valley start-up funded by KPCB. To accelerate our development, we needed to build up a world class engineering center in India. Our goal was to build a center that could attract and retain true product engineers and managers.
We wanted a leader who was a strong technologist, had product vision, and had the start-up DNA to ensure building the right culture at the place. The leader needed to have enough general management capabilities to build a center from the start.
Anu worked closely with me to first evolve the right profile, and then help us choose the best candidate. She presented a mix of options initially, to help us clarify our thought process. The mix had candidates based in US looking to relocate to India, candidates who had already moved to India from the US, and local candidates. It helped us come to our final decision of choosing Sanjay Swamy, who had worked in US but had gone back to India to set up a similar facility for a Ketera-size organization there. Her strong presentation, bringing out why a general management type person was needed in that phase of the company, enabled me to get all our interviewers on-board for the final choice. Overall, we had an excellent experience working with Anu, and a very effective one too as Ketera became the model for all Kleiner Perkins companies looking to set up offshore operations.”
“We got the professionalism and standards of the best in the business, working right here in our backyard while having total familiarity with the fast changing local Bangalore and India talent market…. I found Anu and her search caliber comparable to the best US executive recruiters who work regularly with Silicon Valley start-ups. And this is especially true in terms of her professionalism – she is responsive, structured, diligent and focused – she delivers what she promises.”
“Anu’s company was perfect for our needs – she has an excellent network, a good understanding of the Indian market, and works in my time zone…The search was conducted very efficiently and quickly . I didn’t have to think about it too much or spend too much time on it.”
“MarketTools was a pioneer in taking market research on-line to the web. The business model lent itself well to offshoring, and we had set up a facility in Hyderabad, India. This was not a typical software development or call center operation. We had qualified and highly skilled market researchers at Hyderabad, working with global clients on key programs.
When I spoke with Anu about hiring a leader to head our India operations, she suggested that we look at candidates who had worked both on the marketing/business side in the US, as well as run an offshore facility on the ground in India. Based on her knowledge of the talent landscape, she was confident that we could find an executive with the right combination. And she delivered on her promise. We succeeded in hiring the right person, who stayed on with Market Tools, built and managed our operations there, until we got acquired in 2012.
Anu kept in touch all through the years, asking for feedback on how the facility was shaping up, and helped us hire an Operations Head, plus an HR person too, as the facility grew. Her non-transactional approach to hiring worked very well for us, as we were a high growth company in a start-up mode. Her willingness to share compensation data, and pitch in during annual revisions made her a valuable partner for us in executing our India strategy.”
“I believe Anu understood the context of the position very well – the need to have the right technology vertical context, the need for a self-motivated and driven individual who could create a market for our company from scratch, and the need for this person to be familiar with the US startup culture…. we have been extremely satisfied with the experience of working with AnuPartha, and given the need would be keen to engage with them again for our senior executive needs.”
“I was referred to AnuPartha through strong references and I decided to work with her to establish our R&D Center for IP Infusion. What stands apart about the process that Anu follows is the attention to detail and the ability to attract the top talent for your opportunities. She spent time understanding the technology, the vision and the goals I had for the R&D center.
Anu has a deep network, and most importantly, has the current pulse of various organizations. This helped me to bring in leadership and grow the center for the scale I was looking for. I would definitely work with AnuPartha for any future requirements, I might have.”
“It was heartening to note that Anu’s understanding and approach were perfectly in sync with our requirement and vision. She came with strong understanding of the business analytics space; more importantly, she went beyond the standard job description to create a job profile that had the right mix of domain experience, industry expertise and personality traits. She insisted on several detailed conversations with the stakeholders to understand the intangibles associated with the role. Anu had a well-balanced approach to the search mandate and applied multiple perspectives to position the job. She also comes with the rare understanding of the requirements of cross-border companies.”
“One thing about Anu that impressed me a lot was her emphasis on structured and thorough processes. Initially Anu spent a lot of time in discussions with me and with several others in the senior team here at Tensilica, Santa Clara, to get a very good understanding of the requirements of the profile. She also spent time understanding our area of technology to get a better feel of the experience required of the candidate. As a result the quality and caliber of the candidate pipeline generated by Anu was far superior to any generated by our outsourcing partner or other recruitment methods and options we had explored in the past.”
“When Transera needed a General Manager to lead our R&D and business operations in Bangalore, India, we turned to AnuPartha to find us the right candidate. Anu and her team quickly understood the job requirements, candidate qualifications and salary ranges. They presented us with a number of qualified candidates and helped us select the candidate best suited to our needs.
We valued Anu’s professionalism, integrity and vast candidate network in India. Should we have matching need in the future, we would not hesitate to use her services again”
“Our experience working with Anu and her firm has been a very positive one. First, Anu took the time to find out what we wanted – and in that helped us nail down what exactly we were looking for. She and her team were organized and detailed. For each candidate presented they had done their homework and gave me a good detailed description, the relevance of the prior experience, the candidate’s strengths, areas he/she may not be very strong. The tone of all this was factual. After every interview – she took my feedback and shared the candidate’s feedback. Anu and her team were professional and I did not feel any push to make a decision or close in on any candidate. Importantly, they helped me think through the evaluation process.
Overall it was a good experience working with AnuPartha.”
“Hiring Anu and the Global Executive Talent team to fill our India leadership position came about because of their sterling recommendations from previous clients and in-country press on their results.
Anu knows executive search and her firm is professional, well-connected and understands the global high-tech industry. She is a great sounding board for India policy, structure and how to get things done in the HR practices and compensation world. Anu is the ultimate business partner with a win-win approach for all parties.”
“In life there are those that talk about doing and those that actually do. Anu Partha is the latter. She is a well connected professional who inspires others to think differently, share openly and honestly, and is a person with high ethical standards.
I had the opportunity to work with AnuPartha during an assignment to hire a senior professional when I was with Rambus, Inc. Anu and her team were highly motivated, really understood our requirements with ease, and were able to articulate the requirements to candidates and get them interested.
They followed a rigorous process throughout – from putting together a job description, identifying candidates, offering us their assessment of presented candidates in the form of ‘candidate-statements’, weekly reviews to discuss progress and make course corrections, and to finally helping us make the right offer and get the person on board. In particular, I loved their articulate and accurate candidate-statements, which I think really helped us in interviewing & hiring the right talent.”
“Arghyam is a grant -making foundation I set up with a personal endowment, focused on ground water and sanitation. Sunita Nadhamuni, our first CEO helped shape Arghyam’s work and values. After 7 years of stellar leadership, she wanted to move on. It is always a big challenge to hire a CEO who will take over effectively from the first CEO. As a grant-making non-profit, we wanted to bring on-board a CEO with corporate leadership experience, as we believed it would help Arghyam scale and make a stronger impact.
When we met Anu Parthasarathy for the search, we were impressed with her “can do” attitude and her ideas on what kind of person we should bring on-board. She helped us think through the role, as also the profile of an ideal candidate for the role. She helped us write out a job description that truly brought out the uniqueness of the role and, I believe, attracted the right candidates to interview with us. Eventually, we found a strong, highly-qualified, candidate who could have run a business for any large corporate, but instead chose to run Arghyam. Mala Subramaniam has definitely made a big difference to Arghyam by putting in place systems, processes, metrics and bringing a sharper focus on goals. Arghyam is in good hands and has moved to a next level of growth.
I believe Anu really gets what it takes to hire leadership for the social sector. She is able to convey the right message to attract the best talent from a larger pool, beyond the limited set of professionals within the NGO sector.”
“Hiring in a competitive market is not for the faint of heart and I am really glad that we found a partner in Anu for the GM/MD role that we were trying to fill for Vocera Communications Inc.Just like the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, I feel connecting with Anu and her team for this search was the fastest way to success.
She took the trouble to visit us in San Jose, CA to learn more about the company, our strategy, leadership culture and our values. She learned about our products, our markets, our mission and our competitive edge to help assemble a client profile which she used on her vast network of professionals to identify the short list of right matches.
Her team provided us succinct descriptions of each candidate profiles which outlined their key accomplishments, leadership traits, opportunities and risks laid out in a consistent format that made it easier to get a 360-read on the candidates quickly. This followed weekly updates on the pipeline and Anu’s commentary on the softer side of each of the leaders being reviewed. We were able to close this extremely strategic role within 60 days and are very pleased with not just the end result, but the process Anu led us through.
We generally think of heroes as those who help rescue during difficult times, then there are silent heroes like Anu and her crew, who avert from getting into troubled waters.”
“As CEO of the engine tech startup Pinnacle Engines, I needed to set up an experienced Advisory board for the emerging auto industry. I was not just attempting to fill out Advisory Board slots, but instead desired to find uniquely experienced industry players who could share our passion for the Pinnacle technology and would be willing & eager to use their expertise and networks to assist us in our exciting journey. A colleague suggested that I consider AnuPartha for these searches and I decided to engage her, although I had my doubts then about whether she could find and attract the ideal auto industry prospects for us.
Anu went to work with enthusiasm, developing a very thorough and structured search process. She quickly understood our business vision and was able to share it with prospective advisors. As a result, she offered up six advisors for me to interview. All six were eminently qualified and just as important, were clearly interested in Pinnacle by the time I sat down to talk with them. Anu and her team had done their homework well. I have selected two of these advisors for our Board and may add a third shortly.
Anu’s passion for our business model was evident from the very start. She combined that passion with outstanding process discipline and an uncanny ability to connect with anyone & everyone in the industry. I plan to use her again as we grow and expand our presence across the globe.”
“Anu started working with Model N two years before we decided to set up our own operations in Hyderabad, India. She invested time helping us to understand the talent landscape and executed a timely successful search to hire our General Manager of Model N India. This success made it a no brainer to work with her when the time came to hire a Managing Director to head our operations there.
Anu made it a point to understand the DNA of Model N, our vision and strategy, and was able to to attract the best candidates in a time where Model N was a small and unknown entity in India. She kept close communication with the company to ensure the candidate’s successful on-boarding, helped us every year in setting up compensation, and continued to advise us on what we needed to do next to strengthen the center. Recently, she helped us hire our Global VP of Engineering, which resulted in another successful hire”
What stands out about Anu is her passion for Model N’s success, and her sincerity in representing us in the right way. She is very forthright in her views, and will not hesitate to correct you if she feels it is not the right thing for the company – a true partner in building an organization.”
“We started working with AnuPartha at a critical juncture in VA-Tech Wabag’s journey. My vision was to transform the company and take it to the top three Water Infrastructure firms globally. The time was right to build a global infrastructure organization from India. However this required the addition of leadership talent in different countries and different functions. We needed a partner outside who could understand our vision and translate it into hiring key leadership talent.
Anu has demonstrated a quick understanding of our requirements, style and culture which resulted in efficient screening of the candidates before my meetings with them. She is also very efficient and we are very satisfied with her screening process. This helped in getting candidates with the right profile.
Anu is also systematic & structured in handling the whole process from interview to candidate selection including compensation negotiation. I was also impressed by Anu’s professionalism and her approach to our business needs.”
We approached Anu at a time when our organization was preparing for large-scale growth, with a potential IPO on the cards. As a US company managing global operations, we needed an HR head who could bring the discipline and rigor required for the company to scale, as well as someone with on-the-ground experience in different geographies.
Anu quickly developed an understanding of the strengths and challenges of our organization and helped us arrive at the ideal job profile that took into account the unique aspects of the role. She was able to communicate the right message to attract the best candidate to meet our needs. I felt she astutely grasped the candidate-culture fit we were looking for without us having to explicitly articulate it. When it came to closing the offer, she spoke for the organization’s interests while also realistically representing the candidate’s expectations.
She is thorough, structured and efficient in her approach and it’s no wonder that she successfully completed the assignment within a matter of three months! Anu is more than a resource; she is a partner in building our organization, and I would absolutely recommend her and her team to anyone.
"Anu has been working with Ather since 2016 and has on boarded several very high caliber leaders across disciplines and spanning multiple industries. She's one of those rare folks who argues (and usually convinces) for hiring for the right fit for ambition, energy and seniority, both ways. At a startup cultural fitment matters more than anything else and Anu has a keen eye for cultural fitment. Her assessment of a candidates fit in the company culture and environment is eerily accurate and something I have come to rely and trust quite a lot on."
I'd like to recommend AnuPartha, a fantastic executive search consultant. She helped us hire one the world's leading experts in speech processing as our Chief Data Scientist, around whom we have built our amazing team in NLP, Speech recognition and ML.
Anu just gets what it's like working with a startup - she got our story and evangelized us with a passion for prospective candidates. She also helped me think through the various people issues as we got off the ground. She is super helpful in the early days when your thinking is evolving week over week. She is very unlike large executive search firms and knows how to work with startups.
I was introduced to Anu when I was looking for the ideal search partner to help me fill a critical role to manage operations at Replicon. I was initially sceptical having worked with multiple executive recruiters before, but. I was in for a pleasant surprise working with Anu and her team. They put in a lot of effort to genuinely understand our business, our success points and what we needed to do going forward. They helped us evolve the role and fine-tuned the search based on the first set of candidates we met. This was a big help as most times you start at one point but eventually change based on what the talent landscape looks like. Anu and her team went the extra mile patiently working with us to help us close on the right candidate. They continued to keep in touch and I’m glad that I have found a reliable long-term partner to work with.
"Anu is a six sigma recruiter. She commits whole-heartedly from the moment she engages on a search. She takes great care to understand the needs not just of the hiring manager but also of the organization as a whole. This is unique among recruiters. It's because of this approach that she is able to find talented candidates and persuade them to look at a new opportunity even though they might be happy with their current job. She is relentless and persevering throughout the hiring process and she has never let me down on a search that she has taken on."