The strongest manufacturing HR leaders understand that people strategy starts on the shopfloor.
Naveen Kumar Rai has been appointed DGM and Head HR, MP Region at OfBusiness, bringing 14 years across power, textile, garment manufacturing, skill development, and employee relations.
He began as a Power Engineer at Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd, working on a 3x660 MW supercritical thermal power plant, before spending 11 years at Trident Group India Group across engineering, training, skill development, administration, MD Office, and Employee Relations. He also led Takshashila, Trident's institutional skilling centre, and employee relations for a 10,000+ workforce.
He later joined Pratibha Syntex Ltd. as DGM HR, managing HR, recruitment, training, and talent management for a 7,000+ workforce.
At OfBusiness, he now leads HR for the MP region, including the greenfield garment facility in Pithampur, with a planned workforce of 2,500+ employees.
His differentiator is the combination of engineering operations, workforce planning, large-scale skill development, employee relations, and greenfield HR execution.
He holds qualifications in Instrumentation and Control Engineering and Thermal Power Plant Engineering, along with an Executive Leadership Programme from Indian School of Business.
At Boardroom CXO, we're seeing manufacturing businesses increasingly value HR leaders who can connect people strategy with shopfloor execution and business growth.
Question for manufacturing HR leaders: What's harder, building a 2,500+ workforce from scratch, or maintaining stability across a 10,000+ employee manufacturing workforce?
First published on the Boardroom CXO LinkedIn page on 22 August 2026. To correct or remove it, write to [email protected].
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