Our Team

Ganesh Chella

Suresh Srinivasan

Sudha Cannan

Dr. Anand Kasturi

Sangeetha Santosh

M Hariharan

Chithra V

Abirami Kanmani P

Suganthi. V

Archana E Madhavan

Ganesh Chella

Ganesh is the Co-founder & Managing Director of CFI.

He also leads three of CFI’s expertise areas and associated solutions – Executive Leadership Effectiveness, Top talent Development and Cultural Transformation.

Ganesh pioneered the use of executive coaching for leader development in India.

Since its inception in 2006, Ganesh has helped CFI become a highly respected and sought-after destination for coaching led leader development solutions and coach education and certification.

Ganesh Chella is also the founder of totus consulting, a strategic Human Resource Consulting firm that has addressed the Organisation Development and HR needs of close to 160 clients across over 300 client engagements since its inception in 2000.

Ganesh has coached over 50 senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. He excels in coaching for sustainable behaviour and style changes and in supporting critical executive transitions. He has also been closely involved in training and certifying CFI’s growing coach community and working with an ever expanding community of leaders in managers in embracing a coaching oriented style.

He has three books to his credit: “Creating a Helping Organisation – 5 engaging ways to promote employee performance growth and well-being”,  “Are you ready for the corner office” (co-author) and “HR Here and now – the making of the quintessential people champion” (co-author). He has a very large body of published articles and blogs to his credit.

Ganesh is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur, a professional member of the India Society for Applied Behavioural Science, and trained and certified as a Coach by Dr. Skiffington, Australia and Coaching Foundation India.

Ganesh has come to be respected and acknowledged for his contributions as a practitioner, consultant, coach and thought leader in the field of Organisation Development, Human Resources Management and Executive Coaching. Ganesh is also a strong voice for good coaching practices in the country.

Suresh Srinivasan

Suresh is the Chief Executive Officer of CFI. He also leads the expertise area of entrepreneurial success.

With over 38 years of corporate experience, Suresh has held diverse leadership roles at Indian and multinational organizations in the Information, Communication, Technology, Media and Consulting industries. Over these years, he has had the opportunity to play crucial roles in start-up, growth, decline and turnaround situations, contributing at an operational and strategic level.

In his role as the CEO of CFI, Suresh has been able to forge deep relationships with clients and coaches and enhance the capabilities of CFI to deliver transformational results in all its projects and programs. He also champions CFI’s continuing professional development efforts across its chapters.

Suresh is particularly passionate about championing SheLeads – CFI’s women leader development program and has helped it touch the lives of over 100 women leaders.

He is also driving CFI’s expertise and solutions to aid entrepreneurial success.

Suresh is an alumnus of FMS, University of Delhi (MBA) and NIT, Trichy (BE- Hons.) and a Certified Executive Coach from Coaching Foundation India.

Sudha Cannan

Program Director, SheLeads

Sudha is the Program Director of SheLeads, CFI’s flagship and pioneering women leader development program.
She is also a Senior Facilitator in CFI’s flagship Post – Graduate Program in executive coaching and CFI’s cultural transformation interventions for clients.

Coaching and mentoring are passions for Sudha, while developing coaching capacity and talent in the top leadership has been her commitment. Sudha was associated as the Training Practice Head of India’s largest HR Consulting company. She has been associated with World Bank Projects in India and has also facilitated a number of Leadership Labs for the core leadership teams of public, private and non-profit sector organizations. She coaches and mentors top teams and has developed the mentoring practice for organizations. Sudha has been instrumental in making sustainable coaching and mentoring models for top leadership teams.

Sudha is a Certified Coach from CFI

Dr. Anand Kasturi

Program Director – Coaching and Leader Development Practice

As Senior Facilitator – LEAD, Anand leads our in-company future leader programs.

Dr. Anand Kasturi is an award winning global consultant trainer in the area of customer centricity and a seasoned Executive Coach. After a career in Training for over seven years, Anand launched his training practice in the area of Services Management, something he has been pursuing successfully for over 25 years. Anand has been practising as an Executive Coach for over a decade.

He blends training and coaching to design and deliver highly effective leadership development programmes.

To support learners and coaches, Anand has designed and launched a very popular 360 solution called 360changemagic.com.

Anand is an alumnus of IIT Madras and IIM Bangalore. He completed his PhD. in Services Management from the University of Buckingham. He is a Certified Coach from CFI.

Sangeetha Santosh

Sangeetha is the Program Manager at CFI’s Graduate School of Coaching

As Program Manager, Sangeetha is responsible for ensuring that all CFI public programs and in-company programs are delivered to exacting standards and the satisfaction of clients and participants.

Her role commences with selection and enrolment and ends with successful certification.

Sangeetha plays an especially crucial role in the courseware preparation and the reviews and certification processes.

Sangeetha is Commerce Graduate from the University of Mumbai. She has rich experience in Banking & Operations.

She was working with E Serve International Mumbai.

Sangeetha is also a performing artist (Dance) & a musician and is pursuing her Post Graduation in the domain of Classical Dance.

M Hariharan

Program Director, Graduate School of Coaching

Hariharan is Program Director of CFI’s Graduate School of Coaching and has been an integral part of its education programmes including the flagship Post Graduate Programme in Executive Coaching. He is also a senior facilitator in CFI’s cultural transformation interventions for clients.

Hari is a passionate Leadership Coach, Organisation Consultant and Facilitator of leadership and team development interventions and has worked with the senior leadership of organisations in a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, software, financial services, FMCG, pharmaceuticals and education.

He brings a unique mix of rich experiences over three decades, having worked both overseas and in India. He has also been a successful entrepreneur and co-founded two companies before divesting interests in both companies by early 2002. Hari also brings deep experience and expertise in the use of psychometric tools for coaching and development.

He is a Post Graduate in International Business from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi (IIFT). He is a Certified coach from CFI.

Chithra V

Chitra is Assistant Manager – Programs and supports all operational aspects of our leadership development programs and projects.

She is also the champion of our proprietary online platform that our coaches use to manage the workflow of our coaching engagements.

Chitra also manages our customer relationship management platform and serves as a motivated team player supporting our coaches and our team.

She has completed her Master’s in business administration in HR and has more than 10 years of experience in various industries such as Banking, IT and Education. She worked with organisations like Standard Chartered, NIIT, HTC and Space India, and handled Client Relation & Operations roles.

She has also done her Diploma in Medical record Management and was also a Classical dancer and is an avid music lover and singer and passionate about cooking as well.

Abirami Kanmani P

Abirami is Assistant Director, Leadership Development solutions. She supports two areas of expertise – Executive Leader Effectiveness and Top Talent Development.

In her role, Abirami works closely with our clients, coaches and expertise champions to understand specific needs and craft and execute a range of solutions ranging from one-on-one coaching to large scale in-house leader development programs.

Abirami is most passionate about SheLeads – CFI’s women leader development program.

Most importantly, Abirami is CFI’s talent champion – constantly trying to understand the specific needs of our clients and matching it with the unique strengths of each member of our coach community.

Abirami is a strategic and innovative professional with 10 years of experience in Learning & Development and Human resources at organisations like the Future Group, Aditya Birla Group, and Dr. Agarwals Group of Eye hospitals.

Abirami graduated with a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management from Madras School of Social Work. She has a post-graduate diploma in Instructional Designing from Symbiosis (SCDL – Pune).

She firmly believes in the power of coaching and the infinite possibilities that it can offer to those who undergo this journey of discovering one’s true self and potential.

She is a music enthusiast and an avid reader.

Suganthi. V

Suganthi is Assistant Manager – Finance and is responsible for all aspects of finance, accounting, compliance, and Audit.

Suganthi’s primary role is ensuring that our coaches and our clients find it easy to do business with us.

Suganthi is a graduate in Arts and commerce from Quaid – E- Millath College, Chennai and MBA in Finance from Madras University.

She has worked in Flexol Packaging India Ltd, a group company of TVS Logistics India Ltd and totus consulting services in the finance function. She has over eleven years experience.

Archana E Madhavan

Archana Edward Madhavan leads our Research and Insights Cell. She adopts an action-research approach aimed at synthesizing our learning while helping us strengthen our practice.

She is a talent development professional with over 15 years of experience in HR,( mainly L&D and OD) in financial and manufacturing organisations. She is also a CFI certified Coach and the Principal Consultant of her firm, Impetus People Consulting.

CFI Chapter Leaders

AllChennaiMumbaiBangaloreDelhi

Rajasekharan

Rajashree

A Krishna

Srikrishnan

M L Chakraborty

Ravi Pisharody

Girish Mehta

Shubha Murthi

Rajasekharan

Rajasekharan works as a coach for business leaders. He is also a Mentor helping entrepreneurs at IIT Incubation Centre, Chennai and at other institutions like TiE Chennai, where he is also Charter member.

In his professional career spanning four decades, Rajasekharan has worked at ITC Ltd., and M. M. Rubber’s BOPP division. He has graduated in Chemical Engineering.

Amongst his other involvement in social and business forums, he was the Chairman of CSR committee of Madras Chambers of Commerce

Rajashree

Rajashree is an IT industry veteran and a social impact leader with nearly 30 years of global experience. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer for Cognizant Foundation and plays a key role in evolving an overarching charter for the Foundation.

She is a passionate learner, trainer & speaker in industry forums. She mentors several startups and is passionate about spending time with non-profit organizations and social enterprises, actively contributing to the field of education.

Rajashree obtained her master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. She is a Six Sigma Black Belt and a certified Executive Coach.

A Krishna

A Krishna has nearly four decades of multi-disciplinary professional work experience in Manufacturing and Engineering Technology sectors, including experience abroad in Europe.

A Finance and Accounting professional by qualification, his experience encompasses leadership roles in manufacturing, HR & IR and as Board Member and CFO.

He is currently deeply engaged in the ‘for-impact’ NGO sector in the area of education of underprivileged children, supporting start-ups, coaching and consulting.

Srikrishnan

Srikrishnan has an extensive track record of leading Hi-tech businesses and Software services, with a unique blend of experience from premium research organisations, MNC and startups.

His career spanned Mobility, Aerospace, Healthcare and manufacturing industries and has worked in Europe and USA in leadership positions.

Since 2021 Sri is a Leadership coach, Digital Innovation Consultant, Start-up mentor and keynote speaker.

He has completed a Global Leadership program from European School of Management and Technology, Berlin and BE (Electronics & Communication) from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore.

M L Chakraborty

M L Chakraborty has played leadership roles in Human Resources across diverse organisations for well over 30 years spanning strategic, developmental and operations aspects including Leadership Development, Talent Management, Organizational Development, Employee Engagement and Industrial Relations.

In his last assignment he served Dalmia Bharat Limited as Dy Executive Director-HR and Head- Learning & Development function.

He is a certified CEO coach, an MBTI practitioner, an HRD Auditor and certified in PPA(DISC analysis) , Emotional Intelligence & GIA/TST. He is also a six -sigma green belt.

Currently he works with various organisations as a Leadership Coach as well as an HR expert. He also helps business families on their governance practices.

Ravi Pisharody

Ravi Pisharody has over four decades of corporate experience including executive leadership positions across diverse industries in organisations like Philips, Castrol and Tata Motors in India and abroad.

His core expertise is in Corporate Strategy, Sales and Marketing , People skills and Business Leadership .

He is a CFI Coach and for the last 3 years, has been coaching senior leaders across industries like manufacturing, Automotive OEMs, Automotive components, Farm Equipment, Oil and Gas, BPO, ITES, Steel.

He also serves as a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of 4 companies.

Pisharody is an alumnus of IIT, Kharagpur and IIM, Kolkata.

Girish Mehta

Girish Mehta brings over 30 years of rich corporate experience across service industries conceptualizing, building, consolidating and growing businesses profitably leading teams comprising of highly skilled personnel.

His most recent executive leadership stints include Director, Clinical Diagnostics – Eurofins India, CEO India and Asia of MedGenome and Group CEO – Oncquest Laboratories and Diwanchand Agarwal Diagnostic.

Girish brings to coaching a unique combination of best in class, academic credentials and corporate experience and a passion to help people.
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Girish is an alumnus of IIT, Mumbai and IIM, Kolkata.

Shubha Murthi

Shubha Murthi’s career spanning over three decades in the social sector brought her to many different countries across four continents.

Shubha most recently played a leadership role with SOS Children’s Villages International.

Her learnings have come from working in multi-cultural environments, differing social, political and religious environments.

Shubha Murthi has completed Executive MBA programmes – Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, Governance programme from Harvard Kennedy School, and EQI 2.0 certification.