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Dev ParameshvanChief Human Resources Officer
Portrait of Dev Parameshvan

Chief Human Resources Officer · India

DevParameshvan

A pharmaceutical company reveals its priorities in the careers it makes possible.

I began in a factory personnel office where the shift register was more familiar to me than the product catalogue.

Open to
  • Board appointments
  • Advisory roles
  • Speaking invitations
  • Executive opportunities
Read the profileBegin a conversation

A pharmaceutical company reveals its priorities in the careers it makes possible.

An experienced analyst should not have to become a reluctant line manager to earn recognition for deeper technical work. A quality leader should know who will hear a disagreement when the production calendar becomes difficult. A new manufacturing line needs more than an approved headcount. These questions connect careers, authority and operating capacity. They are where I have spent much of my working life, first in factory personnel and now as the fictional CHRO of Anvethra Pharmaceuticals.

Our India-based business develops and manufactures oral-solid formulations. It employed 4,600 people at the end of March 2026 across three manufacturing locations, a development centre and commercial functions. I lead seventy-four people colleagues through six direct reports. My responsibility is to connect the organisation and employment decisions with the technical work, without pretending that the people function can make a scientific assessment or release a batch.

I am interested in the gap between an approved organisation chart and the experience of holding a role. Does a specialist have a credible future? Can a supervisor decline work that exceeds the capability available? Does the quality function have access to the person who can resolve an organisational disagreement? My record includes decisions that cost more or took longer than planned, and one reward experiment I helped reverse. Those consequences are more useful than a broad claim that culture improved.

Technical progression acquired an actual pay and role structure

A 2021 specialist-career review covered 84 formulation and analytical colleagues. Eighteen moved into assessed specialist grades without taking line-management duties. The approved annual pay effect was ₹1.26 Cr. The remaining sixty-six stayed in their current grades with written feedback; the exercise was not presented as a universal promotion.

An expansion timetable changed when experience could not be copied

For a 2023 line expansion, a proposed transfer of twenty-four experienced colleagues would have weakened the existing unit. We agreed twelve transfers and twelve external hires, with ₹2.4 Cr for staged overlap and preparation. The revised start moved six weeks. Technical leaders retained responsibility for authorising work.

An incentive was withdrawn when its signal proved harmful

In 2014, I supported an attendance-linked supervisor award. Employee discussions showed that it discouraged timely reporting of illness. We withdrew that criterion, reassessed forty-one awards and changed thirteen decisions. The ₹19 lakh correction was recorded as the cost of our original design, not a workforce success statistic.

Current focus

My 2026 review examines twelve specialist appointments made during the previous two years. Nine have written evidence of the technical contribution expected at their grade; three need clearer role definitions. I am working with functional leaders on those three cases before proposing another expansion of the career structure. A title should create a usable responsibility, not merely settle a retention conversation.

Conversations I welcome

I am open to a people-leadership or advisory mandate in a pharmaceutical business willing to examine the relationship between technical authority, careers and investment decisions. I would consider a first external board appointment with an appropriate induction and a clearly defined contribution. For speaking, I prefer a working discussion of one employment decision and its consequences to a general address on inspiration.

4,600

Group employees

31 March 2026; company scale

74

People-function colleagues

Six direct reports; October 2026

₹31 Cr

Delegated annual expense

FY 2027 people function; excludes group payroll

I pay attention to what happens to the person who gives an inconvenient technical answer. A company can praise expertise while making promotion depend on leaving it behind. My work is to make employment choices consistent with the responsibilities the business says it values, and to acknowledge where our own people systems have sent a different message.

Dev Parameshvan

Chief Human Resources Officer

Areas of stewardship

Where accountability has been mine.

  1. ITechnical careers without compulsory management
  2. IIAuthority around quality responsibilities
  3. IIIWorkforce planning for plant expansion
  4. IVReward design and unintended behaviour

Selected work

Decisions, and what they changed.

I

Paying for specialist contribution without inventing managerial duties

In 2021, Anvethra Pharmaceuticals reviewed the progression of eighty-four formulation and analytical colleagues.

The full account

II

Giving a quality responsibility an organisational route to be heard

A 2019 organisation review at Anvethra identified a practical ambiguity.

The full account

III

Revising an expansion when the existing unit still needed its experienced people

The staffing proposal for a 2023 manufacturing-line expansion assumed that twenty-four experienced colleagues would transfer from an established unit.

The full account

In the words of others

Trusted by those who appoint.

Dev made the six-week delay and the overlap cost visible before we approved the staffing plan. That gave us a real expansion decision instead of a recruitment update with the operating consequences missing.
Meera SadvithanFictional CEO, Anvethra Pharmaceuticals; executive colleague since 2018
He asked us to define the specialist contribution before discussing the grade. The assessment remained a technical responsibility, while his team made the career and pay consequences clear to the people involved.
Kiran VelantriFictional development director, Anvethra Pharmaceuticals; partner in the 2021 specialist review

The journal

Perspective, set down with care.

An invitation

Contact

I am open to a people-leadership or advisory mandate in a pharmaceutical business willing to examine the relationship between technical authority, careers and investment decisions. I would consider a first external board appointment with an appropriate induction and a clearly defined contribution. For speaking, I prefer a working discussion of one employment decision and its consequences to a general address on inspiration.

Open to
  • Board appointments
  • Advisory roles
  • Speaking invitations
  • Executive opportunities
Write to Dev

office@devparameshvan.example