Ram to my corporate colleagues and friends, Babuji to my siblings, Big B to my daughter... but the one name I cherish and love is Sa’ab, given to me by Jaggu and Achu and then spread to all Gems... 

 

Passing out of IIMA and a CA/CS to boot, I thought I had the entire world in my pocket – but came crashing to the ground when the reality struck, with my first assignment in HLL (now HUL) at the interiors of Ghaziabad and the UP hinterland. However my 15 years in HLL and Unilever UK (London/Bristol) were the most enjoyable time of my career, where I truly learnt some valuable lessons and made some lifelong friends. 

 

Soon the 15 year itch started and I made a career switch to the American startup in India - PepsiCo – again a fantastic experience in running a complex distribution setup and became its CEO of Beverage bottling operations and was lucky to spend time in Athens and Denver, USA on secondment. 

 

After that a series of career changes happened – Managing Director of Swedish MNC Electrolux Kelvinator, President of Ranbaxy, Senior Executive Director of DLF Hilton Hotels and finally as Managing Director of the Private Equity firm Blue River Capital. 

 

Retired from active corporate life in Dec 2015 (at 65 years) and was beginning to enjoy my well earned rest by playing golf, reading and spending time in USA with my daughter and siblings – but my fate decreed otherwise. 

 

After 6 months of retired life, started work again as India Partner of Alexander Hughes, which is an European Executive search firm specialising in C-suite recruitments and assessments. I always used to wonder about what these Head-hunters do, but now I am finding out myself and this job keeps me away from home 9 to 5. 

 

I am married to Geetha and she has tolerated me, rather I tolerated her, for 37 years till now and counting. She is a post-graduate in English Literature and a qualified teacher. She is serious about her classical music and is practising Veena and Yoga with a vengeance – still keeps trying to drag me into music and yoga, but I remain steadfast and inflexible. 

 

My only daughter Sadhana passed out from Grinnell College, IOWA, USA (Economics Honours) and is currently working with Yum! Brands in London. She is crazy about fitness and sports and is an accomplished tennis player, having captained the US Midwest university team. She is a scholar athlete – she recently completed Chicago full marathon in October and also completed the Tri-PEAK challenge by climbing the three highest peaks in UK in 24 hours. Her ambition is now to get into MBA program in Harvard, Stanford or Wharton in Fall 2018. I only hope that she does what I couldn't. 

 

Although a Tamilian, I am a naturalised North Indian, and have settled down in Gurgaon/NCR. My coordinates are: +91 9810182410 (mobile) and ram.ramasundar@gmail.com (personal email) and r.ramasundar@alexanderhughes.com (work email). 

 

A collage of my life journey so far...