Avtar Group Announces Awards for Career Excellence at MACC 2025

• Career Achievers, Icons, Early Career Excellence and Second Career Professionals were honored

• A one-of-its kind Career Conference drew hundreds of professionals for career opportunities, skilling and mentoring

As the age of AI unfolds, bridging the skills gap and offering professionals opportunities to reskill and the guidance to recalibrate their careers has become essential. Avtar hosted its 2nd edition of myAvtar Career Conference (MACC), a day-long career expo for professionals at the NIMHANS Convention Centre in Bengaluru on 30th August. 

Avtar Group Announces Awards for Career Excellence at MACC 2025

Hosted by myAvtar.com, Avtar Group’s diversity hiring portal, the career conclave offered participants four growth tracks - Career Track that showcased emergent job options; mentoring track that connected participants with experienced industry leaders; knowledge track that featured panel discussions and sessions with thought leaders’ and skilling track that focused on essential skill-building and adaptive learning.

Inclusive organizations such as Publicis Sapient, Indegene, Kenvue, Weaver, Biocon Biologics, KBR India, Merit Data & Technology, NatWest Group, State Street, Genesis, HCL BPO & Zuci Systems offered jobs, skilling and mentoring to the participants.

Speaking about MACC 2025 and its impact, Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Founder – President, Avtar Group, said, “AI is transforming the way we work. It’s automating repetitive tasks & sparking innovation. Yes, it’s disrupting some jobs, but it's also creating new opportunities. But to truly benefit from this shift, every professional must invest in reskilling. Avtar’s research shows that close to 50% of organizations struggle to fill AI-related roles. Also, while reskilling is essential, it's not just about learning new tech –mentorship, peer support, and immersive learning remain deeply important. That’s what MACC offered: skilling along with human connection, where professionals from across industries came to learn, connect, and plan their next move. We need more such platforms to build well-rounded, future-ready professionals.”

Avtar Group announced winners in the following categories:

Early Career Excellence Award for individuals between 2-8 years of experience demonstrating strong appetite for learning and growth

• Annapurna Ramesh, Data scientist/engineer, Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India

Career Achiever (Mid Career) for individuals between 8-15 years of experience and have demonstrated fast-track growth

• Mahendra Joshi, Solution Architect, COE, Data & Analytics, Tech Mahindra

Career Icons (Matured Career) for individuals with 15 plus years of experience 

• Shilpi Mitra, Principal Software Engineering Manager, Microsoft India

• Sobhitha Neelanath, Senior Manager, Software Engineering, Salesforce India

Inspiring Second Career Professional for having made successful career comeback. 

• Preethy Senthilkumar, Lead Business Analyst, Zuci Systems India Private Ltd

Best Talent Development Program for Corporates 

• KBR India won the award for its excellent and sustained efforts in developing and advancing talent in the organization. Geetha Ramamurthi, managing director, KBR India received the award.

The conference was well attended by early & mid - career professionals from diverse industries such as finance, IT, services and manufacturing, but also industry thought leaders keen to build smart workplaces. Themed #TheDoublePunch: Winning Strategies to Unlock Career Momentum, MACC 2025 underlined the significance of intentional career planning along with adaptive learning. 

Presenting the awards, the Chief Guest, Pavitra Shankar, Managing Director, Brigade Group, said, “Hard work is non-negotiable in building a sustainable career and one day the rewards will come back to you. Career intentionality is what helps one pick their path when presented with the right opportunities. Constant reinvention and learning is what powers your career at every career stage. And as one moves forward in their leadership journey, it is important to be the leader who you always wanted.”

The conference featured inspiring addresses from Rakesh Ravuri, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Engineering, Publicis Sapient; Manjushree Dutta, Managing Director, Head of Business Strategy, Planning & Legal Entity Governance, State Street India, Rajesh Puneyani, VP & Managing Director, GCC site leader, Kenvue India GCC, and Srinivasa Rao Somepalli, Head of Operations, Bengaluru, KBR India among other distinguished speakers. 

The Guest of Honor, Louis Mathew, GDS Enablement Services Leader, EY, said addressing the audience said, “Building careers is like running- one needs to pace oneself very well. It is important to stay in your lane and sometimes it is okay to walk and embrace the second wind. We also need to accept the suffering that comes with this if you are intentional about a long career. And finally, it is discipline that brings us closer to success.”

To know more, visit www.avtarinc.com | www.myavtar.com

About Avtar
Avtar, founded in 2000 by Dr Saundarya Rajesh, is one of India’s leading workplace culture consulting firms, supporting hundreds of companies in creating diverse and supportive workplaces. Avtar is also the country’s largest provider of second career opportunities for women. 

An ISO 20700 certified firm, Avtar conducts corporate India’s largest annual benchmarking studies – the Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI) and the Most Inclusive Companies Index (MICI). Done in partnership with Seramount, BCWI and MICI have paved the way for the employment of more women and other under-represented groups. Avtar also promotes inclusive hiring through MyAvtar, India’s first job portal for under-represented professionals. 

A snapshot of Avtar’s work in the last 25 years: 

• Provided advisory services in inclusive practices to 800+ organizations

• Conducted 20,000+ training programs in companies of different sizes, spanning industries and locations

• Facilitated the re-entry of 1,00,000 second-career women into the workforce through MyAvtar.com

• Provided Intentional Career Pathing training to 200,000+ women, preventing them from leaving the workforce

• Offered unique skilling programs such as DigiPivot (a prestigious course in digital marketing, conducted in partnership with Google, HUL, and ISB) to hundreds of women. 

• Provided career intentionality training, employment guidance, and access to industry leaders every year to 10,000+ girls from underprivileged backgrounds through Project Puthri, an initiative of the Avtar Human Capital Trust (AHCT).

• Impacted 4000+ schoolboys through MITR (Men Impacting Trust and Respect), an initiative by AHCT that mentors boys to be advocates for women.

For its transformational impact in the realm of DEI, Avtar Group was listed in the prestigious Steward Leadership 25 Listing by Strait Times & INSEAD at Singapore in 2022.