Engineer → PM → Business leader.
Nineteen years and three continents — but the through-line is the arc. Mechanical engineer who became a product manager who became a business leader. Five industries. Three formal degrees, all work-integrated. The shape of the path is the asset.
Where the engineer started
Both sides of my family migrated to Mumbai in the 1950s, leaving their ancestral homes to start from nothing. My parents repeated that pattern. At 18, I left home for a new city for university. No safety net, no one who knew my name.
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School had never been a place where my potential felt visible. University changed that overnight — after the first semester, only a third of the class had cleared all subjects. For the first time, I was differentiated. I held that edge, ranking first in every remaining semester.
But the experience that shaped me most wasn't academic. When the university imposed an unplanned 100% fee increase — one many students couldn't afford — I helped lead the pushback. When you know what it's like to have no one standing up for you, you learn to stand up for others. That instinct has never left.
Engineer. Software craft as a baseline.
Graduated as a mechanical engineer, walked into a room of 1,800 computer science graduates. Outmatched on paper from day one. Finished in the top 90 on the fast-track programme.
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L&T was first professional code. The discipline behind software craft as a baseline. Built systems for Pawan Hans that delivered real cash-flow visibility — and learned what it meant to be accountable for what shipped.
2009 Mumbai → Pune Engineer becomes PM
Founding product manager at Zycus — team of one. No PM peers, no playbook. Just the need to figure out hiring, people management, sales enablement, and product strategy simultaneously. That constraint forced me to learn everything at once.
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B2B depth. How procurement runs the world's spend — and the patience enterprise product demands. Sales across multiple countries, referenceable customers in the US, Europe, and Australia, a patent-worthy UX that differentiated the product line, and recognition as MVP.
Along the way, a Master's in Software Engineering at BITS Pilani — work-integrated, while running the product function. The PM identity took shape here.
2015 Dubai, UAE PM becomes business leader. Cultural fluency.
Moved with a newborn — new country, new industry, no network. Pivoted from B2B enterprise into consumer products and retail loyalty.
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Retail at the speed of the Gulf. Mobile loyalty across millions of members and 1,500+ retail stores. E-commerce strategies across 15 brands in three markets. Two years in, a decision: stay comfortable or start again. I chose Berlin.
2017 Berlin, Germany Business leader at consumer scale. The third rebuild.
No German, no local network, navigating immigration bureaucracy while building a career from scratch — for the third time.
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The European product-craft tradition. Growth loops as the organising frame for everything from acquisition to retention. The mission-based-trio model emerged here, and the company-wide growth framework that came with it. The PM team doubled; several of those PMs are now directors elsewhere.
Living across three cultures simultaneously built a specific kind of pattern recognition: reading context fast, adapting without waiting for permission, navigating ambiguity as daily practice.
Berlin · 2024
On stage at tonies tech talk
2021 Berlin Hardware × digital × P&L
Digital portfolio for tonies — app, IoT integration, content, CRM, e-commerce — across ten markets. Building for households, not just users.
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During this chapter: HBS GMP, work-integrated. The strategic-finance and capital-allocation lens that had been visible at the edges of my decision-making for years finally became internal. Operating model evolved toward an AI-native default — not as a demo, as the way the work happens. The ambition: lead at the highest level of product and technology — companies where customers genuinely benefit, talented people do the best work of their careers, and the organisation compounds its advantage over time.
Boston · 2025
Harvard Business School GMP
For what shipped during these chapters — case studies, builds, scale metrics — see the work timeline →
Strengths · how I operate
Resilience
Not motivational-poster resilience — the kind built by repeatedly adapting to new systems, cultures, and languages without advantage. When you have no choice but to figure it out, you develop a calm under pressure that doesn't fade.
Empathy
When you've been the outsider who doesn't speak the language, doesn't know the system, and carries the weight of proving yourself all over again — you learn to see the invisible challenges others carry. High standards, always. But with genuine care for what each person is navigating beneath the surface.
Values · what I believe
Growth through effort
When comfort was never an option, you learn that progress comes from discipline and the refusal to stop learning — long after others have settled.
Fairness
When you know what it's like to have no one standing up for you, you learn to stand up for others. That instinct shapes how I hire, how I give feedback, and how I build cultures.
Building things that last
Products, teams, and cultures where people develop the resilience to do the best work of their lives. The test: is it still running after you've moved on?
Schooling · the investment in formal learning
Formal degrees
All three work-integrated. Engineering as the foundation; software systems as the bridge; general management as the lens.
- Mechanical Engineering · Mumbai University
- MS Software Systems · BITS Pilani
- General Management Program (GMP) · Harvard Business School
Continued learning
Where the formal degree ended, the practitioner curriculum began. The list keeps growing.
- Reforge · Growth Series
- IDEO U · Designing Strategy
- ICF Coaching · Intellicoach Leader Academy
- Scrum Alliance · CSM · CSPO
Cultures & languages
The curriculum no syllabus covers — three continents lived in, three languages spoken, 45+ countries visited.
- Three continents · India · UAE · Germany
- Three languages · English · Hindi · German
- 45+ countries visited · cuisines, customs, cities
Crucible stories · the moments that shaped the rest
Five moments where the path could have ended and didn't. They don't fit on a CV. The headlines are public; the full stories are shared with people I'm in conversation with.
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The pushback
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Leaving home at 18
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Engineer becomes PM
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Dubai with a newborn
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Berlin without German
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Nineteen years in and I'm still getting a lot of this wrong. How to coach someone through a problem without solving it for them. How to stay patient when the answer should be obvious. How to build products that matter to people I've never met. I update my thinking when I find a better model. Some of what's written here will look half-baked in five years. That seems right.