Gurleen Qaznethi · Chief Human Resources Officer · India

Ask what the reassuring workforce total leaves out

My contribution to a board

I would help directors examine what a workforce statement actually establishes. A deputy named beside every role may conceal several demands on the same person. A course-completion total may omit the assessment required for a particular task. A travel rule may ask an employee to explain a private circumstance while leaving its own seniority distinction unexamined. My contribution would be to connect those statements with the enterprise's commitments and the evidence management can support. I have had to correct a succession account I endorsed, so I would approach the discussion with an interest in the decision process rather than a claim that the people function always sees the problem first. A board needs enough understanding to challenge a material dependency without taking over individual deployment or employment cases. I would bring practical questions and learn the company's wider economics, technical requirements and obligations alongside colleagues whose expertise differs from mine.

Judgement in practice

Ask whether the succession total describes independent capacity

Our twenty-four deputy entries referred to twelve people. The revised account mapped sixteen distinct deputies to sixteen roles and retained eight gaps after a₹42 lakh development and review programme. I would ask directors to consider how management has examined simultaneous demands and the consequences of moving a proposed deputy from existing work. The revised sixteen still did not mean every person could replace an incumbent at once. Readiness and availability remained assignment questions. Oversight should see the funded work and its unfinished conditions, not treat the development budget as evidence that the exposure has disappeared. The board's role is to understand the material dependency and the alternatives management is developing, while leaving the technical assessment and individual appointment decisions with the responsible executives.

Require the learning claim to retain its actual stage

Forty-eight people attended the defined programme, thirty-six completed assessment and twenty-nine cleared the specified tasks. Seven needed further practice and twelve had not yet been assessed. I would help directors ask which of those measures supports the capability claim in a significant operating proposal. The₹28 lakh programme paid for practice and assessment time;HR did not issue a general technical certification. A board need not inspect every individual's record to ask whether the company's reporting distinguishes participation from demonstrated readiness. It should also understand whether the qualified assessors have time to do the work and how unfinished stages affect management's capacity assumptions. The account should neither overstate readiness nor turn lack of an assessment opportunity into an unsupported judgement about the employee.

Examine the purpose of an employment rule before asking for personal justification

The travel review found fifty-four own-room preferences among seventy colleagues, with sixteen willing to share. We introduced an option without a seniority condition or private explanation and approved an additional₹18 lakh annual lodging envelope. I would ask a board how management evaluates the employment arrangements on which material assignments depend, and whether their costs appear in the operating account. The policy did not settle every booking or create a universal legal standard. Practical and professional reviews still applied. Directors can examine the rationale, financial provision and unresolved consequences without choosing hotels or requesting personal employee details. That distinction allows oversight of the employment model while protecting the privacy and executive responsibilities involved in its application.

My first year on a board

I would begin by learning how the company converts a service promise into a resource plan and an employment arrangement. With the chair's agreement, I would follow one material workforce assumption through the management paper, the decision and the later review. I would listen to operating and financial colleagues as well as HR, so that familiar people vocabulary did not become a substitute for understanding the enterprise. The induction should also develop my knowledge of the board's collective duties and the proposed committee's remit. I would complete the relevant preparation and seek guidance on subjects outside my experience. At the first-year review, I would want to know whether my questions helped directors understand a real dependency, whether I respected the executive team's role and whether the actual time allowed proper preparation. Attendance alone would be no more sufficient as a measure of my own contribution than it was in the learning case.

Conflicts and their management

Before considering confidential papers, I would identify links through Nerzemi's collection clients, travel suppliers, recruitment partners and ownership vehicles. The review must include employer consent and the practical effect of repeated exclusions from important discussions. The proposed company would need a qualified review of independence under the Companies Act and, where applicable, SEBI LODR. Committee eligibility and limits on appointments would form part of that company-specific assessment. I have no existing statutory appointment and have not completed databank registration or assessment preparation. The twenty-four-day allowance is provisional and must include reading, induction, travel and exceptional demands. I would not bring private candidate records, employee preferences or client movement information from my current role into another company. A relationship that can be disclosed may still make an appointment unsuitable if it repeatedly prevents useful participation. I would prefer to decline such a role rather than rely on a formal statement that understates the practical conflict.

My independence statement

Relationships involving Nerzemi's family investment vehicle, employee trust, private investor, collection clients, travel suppliers and recruitment partners require review. No personal or trust holding does not by itself establish independence for a proposed appointment.

Committee contribution

Chair and member readiness
Capacity	Committees
Ready to join	Nomination and remuneration committee considering succession and workforce assumptions, after eligibility review and induction · Risk committee examining specialist-service dependencies and employment conditions

Capacity and preferences

Time available: 24 days per year
Current directorships: 0
Sectors: Specialist exhibition and collection logistics · Professional services dependent on scarce practical skills · Distributed service businesses with material temporary assignments
Company type: A services enterprise that can define the workforce oversight question and provide complementary financial and technical expertise
Company stage: Examining succession depth, learning assurance or the employment conditions behind expansion

The seat I am pursuing

I would consider a specialist-services board that can identify where workforce assumptions materially affect its strategy or risk. A nomination and remuneration or risk contribution may be relevant after company-specific eligibility review and induction;I make no immediate chair claim. The board should have financial, legal and technical strengths that help test my perspective rather than treat a CHRO background as a complete answer to every employment or operating issue. I would value a setting where directors can ask what a reassuring total excludes and management can bring unfinished work without being forced into an invented success narrative. The role must allow sufficient preparation and a workable conflict position. I am seeking an opportunity to improve collective judgement about the enterprise's commitments, not an alternative route to direct its people function or certify specialist handling decisions outside my competence.

Board and committee exposure

Presented to the Board or a committee

Nerzemi Exhibition Movers

Executive workforce presentations on succession, learning and employment arrangements;no committee appointment

January 2021 onward

Presents through CEO Rohit Qezvanu. The experience is executive presentation, with no statutory directorship or committee-chair record.

Governance learning and readiness

IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered

Not yet registered with the IICA independent directors databank. Assessment preparation is unfinished;no passed result or exemption is asserted.

Complete the databank and proficiency-assessment preparation appropriate to the proposed appointment
Develop financial and enterprise knowledge beyond the people-function remit
Study the proposed committee's duties and the company's actual operating dependencies