Suraj Chettri

Regional Director HR
Airbus India & South Asia

Suraj completed his Bachelors in Sociology from RanchiUniversity and PGDPM from Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS)Ranchi where he secured 3rd rank in the Class of 1991 – 1993.

He started his career with Bata Indiain 1993 and as Asst. Manager – Personnel in their Retail North Zonal Office at New Delhi was responsible amongst other activities for IR and T&D. During his tenure with Bata he was certified as a Sales Trainer and anEnquiry Officer.

In 1996 he took up a job with Bosch India based out of Bangalore, during his tenure as a Manager at Bosch he headed the Recruitment and T&D and was deputed to theirGlobal HQ in Stuttgart, Germany, for 2 years responsible for intercultural sensitization.He attained a master practitioner's degree in NLP, team workshop moderator and was certified as an intercultural trainer. He was also recognized for his contributions by the NHRD Network - Bangalore Chapter as an achiever under the Young HRManager category and wasa part of the Team that won the best HR practices Company Award from NHRD.

In 2003 he left them to join General Motors as General Manager – HR, heading the HRfunction at the Tech. Centre – India,which housed the Engineering and India Science Lab at Bangalore. He was part of the Project Leadership Team responsible for setting up theiroperations in India and was certified as a DDI instructor and recognized by the Chairman's Appreciation Award for his contributions in setting up of the centre.

In 2006 he joined Textron Indiain Bangalore, India, as Director Human Resources and was instrumental in setting up the entire HR infrastructure. In November 2008 he was given the additional responsibility of Deputy MDfor the Global Technology Center at Bangalore and inducted as a member of the Board.

In 2011 Suraj joined Airbusand is now responsible for India& South Asia as their Regional Director HR.

He was also the National Representative for the Airbus Corporate Foundation in 2015 when he was conferred with the Gold Karmaveer Chakra and the Rex Karmaveer Global Fellowship for his contribution towards the Bio Diversity Program by iCongo in association with the UN, he was also recognised as the 100 Most Impactful CSR Leaders in 2017and 2018 by World CSR Day.

In 2013 Suraj was conferred with the HR Leadership Award and in 2015 the Top 100 influencing HR leaders in Asia both by the Asia Pacific HRM Congress. In 2016 and 2017 with the most influential HR Leaders in India at the World HRD Congress. In 2017 he was also conferred with South India's most talented HR Leaders Award at the APAC HRM Congress, Indira Pride of the Profession – HR Award by the Indira Group of Institutes, and the University of Engineering & Management Award of Excellence for his immense contribution to the Corporate World. In 2018 he was conferred with the 100 Top HR Minds in India Award.In 2019 with the 101 Super HR Achievers (India) Award by CHRO Asia and the Dr Tara Shankar Award of Excellence. In 2020 with the Sustainable HR Leader Award by World HRD Congress and Top 5 DivHERsity Champion – Large OranisationAward by Jobs For Her.

Under his leadership Airbus India was conferred with the 100 Top organization with Innovative HR Practises in 2018 & 2019 by APAC HRM Congress, National Best Employer Brand Award for 2018 and 2019 by CHRO Asia and Top 5 Most Innovative Pratices in DivHERsity Policies and Top 20 Most Innovative PracisesDivHERsity Awards in the other 6 categories.

Suraj has an overall experience of 27 years in the aerospace, automotive, engineering sales and marketing and manufacturing sectors and is located out of Bangalore. He is a life member of NHRD, ISTD, BMA and NIPM and is a regular speaker at all major Business Schools, Seminars and Conferences in India.