Summit Highlights
The summit featured Rajesh Mishra, Partner, KPMG in India; Sushma Banthia, Executive & Leadership Coach; Raghuram Krishnan, Chief Financial Officer, Adobe; Nishant Banthia, Vice President, Dell Technologies; and Mansij Majumdar, Head – Corporate HR, Manipal Education.
Sessions included “The Leadership Contradiction,” “The Leader Who Doesn’t Have the Answer,” “The Leader Who Walked Away,” “The Uncomfortable Table,” led by Sushma Banthia, and “Growth vs. Resilience: What Should Leaders Optimise For Now?”, moderated by Rajesh Mishra.
Asia’s Leadership Excellence Awards
The recognition ceremony celebrated professionals and organisations across HR, finance, marketing, hospitality, business, technology, CSR, healthcare, education, insurance, manufacturing and social impact.
Human Resources & People Leadership
- Great HR Leader to Work With: Neha Kapoor (Vodafone Idea), Buravalli Swarna Latha (Skyroot Aerospace), Gagan Jyot (RMSI), Manas Kaviraj (Advanced Weapons & Equipment India), Sonu Gupta (Coders Brain Technology), Dr. Balaji M. S. (Critical Facility Group).
- Influential HR Leader: Hemant Patel (Acutaas Chemicals), Nikhil Raj (Equiniti India), Srinivas Kuchimanchi (HFCL), Ramesh Nandyal (Cprime Inc.), Hari Nair (Nahars Engineering India), K. Kalaiselvan (Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers), Rajat Sheth (Elan Group).
- Influential CHRO: Ajoy Salve (Busybees Logistics Solutions).
- People & Culture Excellence – Excellence in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I): Equiniti India.
Asia’s Women Leadership Excellence
- Influential Women Leaders Award: Sushma Banthia, Executive & Leadership Coach; Chiragi Thakor, Senior Director – HR Asia Pacific Business, Idex Corporation; Preeti Pallepati, ED & Group COO, Raghu Vamsi Machine Tools Private Limited; Aditi Mukherjee, Chief People Officer, NCDEX Limited; Manjula Rao, Chief Human Resources Officer, FirstCry (Brainbees Solutions Ltd.); Namita Vyas, Global Senior Leader – Talent Acquisition, Boeing; Namrata Goyal, Producer, Filmstoc and Secretary, Mijwan Welfare Society; Shalini Naagar, Senior Director – HR, Baxter India Private Limited, Gurgaon; and Dr. Sameena Shaikh.
Asia’s Finance, Marketing & Hospitality Excellence
- Influential CFO Award: Pramod Agarwal (ERGO Technology), Bikram Ghosh (Western Coalfields), Shri Proteek K. Chakraborty (Electronics Corp of India), Saket Maheshwari (SVC Co-operative Bank), Rakesh Tumane (MOIL), Jayesh Sanghrajka (Infosys), Kishore Kumar Senapati (AAI Cargo Logistics), Mukesh Kumar (MECON).
- Influential Marketing Leader Award: Krunal P. Patel (NSE India), Tom Thomas (Equiniti India), Naveen Malhotra (EdgeVerve / Infosys).
- Influential Hospitality Leader Award: Abhishek Pani General Manager – (Radisson Blu Resort Visakhapatnam), Shyam Kumar General Manager (DoubleTree by Hilton Bengaluru Whitefield), Sunil Tandon Assistant Vice President (Sterling Holidays & Resorts).
Asia’s Business Leaders,Excellence & C-Suite Honors
- Influential CEO Award: Alok Rungta, Managing Director & CEO, Generali Central Life Insurance Company Limited; Swati Saxena, Founder & CEO, 4Thoughts Finance; and Virender Pankaj, CEO, Aseem Infrastructure Finance Ltd.
- Influential Business Leaders Award: : Puneet Chandok, President, Microsoft India and South Asia, Microsoft; Madhav Sheth, CEO, AI + Smartphone; J. Vijey Christopher, Executive Director, Brinton Pharmaceuticals Ltd.; Debraj Dam, Chief of VAD, Supertron Electronics Pvt. Ltd.; Bhupesh Sushil Rahul, Chairman & MD, United India Insurance Company; Dr. U. Saravanan, Chairman & MD, National Fertilizers Limited; and Pushpendra Kumar, Founder & CEO, Equence Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
- Business Leader of Excellence Award: AI + SMARTPHONE (Most Disruptive Mobile Phone Brand), Onward Technologies (Fastest Growing Digital Engineering Company), Meghna Shah, CEO, Tandem (Influential Woman Leader in Public Relations & Communications and Leading Entrepreneur in Public Relations & Brand Communications.).
Asia’s Business, Organization and Brand Leadership
Branding & Marketing Impact Award 2026: Equiniti India for Customer-Centric Brand of the Year; Wrench Solutions for Marketing Excellence Award; and Exponential-Functions for Emerging Digital Marketing Agency of the Year.
Insurance Excellence & Leadership Award: Generali Central Life Insurance Company Limited for Best Claims Settlement Excellence; and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for Best Insurance Company of the Year.
Manufacturing Growth & Leadership Award: Dhash Green Energy Pvt. Ltd. for Manufacturing Excellence Award and Visionary Manufacturing Leader Award; Manjunath N. Reddy, Founder & Chairman, was recognised for visionary manufacturing leadership.
PSU Leadership & Governance Excellence Award: Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO). Northern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Limited. (south India)
Healthcare Excellence & Leadership Award for AI Innovation in Healthcare – Cigna Health Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.
Responsible Business & Social Impact Award for Excellence in CSR & Social Impact – United India Insurance Company.
Banking & Financial Services Award for Best Wealth Management Company and Best Asset Management Company – IIFL Capital Services Limited.
People’s Choice Company to Work: Spar Technology Services India Pvt. Ltd. and Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited.
Education Leadership & Excellence Award – Best International Curriculum School: NES International School Mumbai.
Social Impact Sector
Best NGO Initiative & Social Impact Award: Suryoday Trust – NGO of the Year; Rise Against Hunger India – Best NGO of the Year; and United Way of Bengaluru – Best NGO Award.
Top CSR Impact Leader: Dinesh Karunakar Shetty, Chief Executive – Principal Technical Advisor, BSCIC Certifications Pvt. Ltd.
A Different Perspective on Leadership
The Asia Leadership Summit 2026 brought together leadership dialogue, networking, experiential learning and recognition around a central proposition: leadership is not simply about becoming more—it is about becoming whole. Through its sessions and recognition ceremony, the summit examined uncertainty, sacrifice, purpose, resilience, human connection and the choices that shape leadership.
“The Whole Leader, Not More… WHOLE” remained the defining message, highlighting that leadership is not only about what leaders achieve, but also how they lead, what they stand for, what they question and who they become along the way.
— Team TimesAspire Unicom Network Pvt. Ltd. – https://www.timesaspire.com/
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