End of a Sabbatical and a New Beginning

Today marks the end of a sabbatical I started over ten months ago. It was wonderful to have the opportunity of time and space to travel the world, to reflect, and to pursue some passion projects and community impact work. Here are a few things I've come to appreciate:

1. Counting my blessings: Several wonderful things happened over this sabbatical on the personal front. My awesome wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. Our daughter cleared her Medical Licensing exams with flying colors, carving the path to be a future physician, following her mother’s footsteps. I had the pleasure of watching our son run many races, setting new personal records, while also prioritizing and balancing his academic pursuits.
2. Making an impact: Nonprofit and community impact work has energized me. Whether it's doing my part in helping raise alumni contributions toward a $100 million endowment goal for IIT Madras through the IIT Madras Foundation or engaging in local impact work across healthcare, food security, and primary education in the underserved communities of Atlanta through Sewa International, paying it forward with no expectation of return is extremely gratifying.
3. Making new friends for life: I made several new likeminded friends through my nonprofit endeavors. Several of the leaders in these nonprofits also happen to be some of the most successful people in their professional and entrepreneurial realms. Their ability to balance their time between their professional commitments and a portfolio of worthy impact activities is something I continue to learn from.
4. Sharpening my professional edge: This sabbatical was also an opportunity to accelerate my professional growth. Through my collaboration with the awesome supply chain tech VCs Rohini Chakravarthy and Chad Bailey, I had the opportunity to meet with many wonderful founders from whom I continue to learn. It is awesome having a front row seat into company formation and category creation in the supply chain domain. I also advised my friends in the PE world and it was quite rewarding. I took some amazing courses in Generative AI and LLMs through Deeplearning.ai, and an awesome Supply Chain Finance course taught by Oliver Belin (one that I highly recommend to any Procurement Professional).
5. Hope for peace and a better world: My travels through the sites of historic tragedies like the Hypocenter of Hiroshima, Japan and the Jallianwala Bagh of Amritsar, India, which have since emerged as symbols of resilience and determination, made me hopeful for a better world despite the conflicts and wars of current times. As gut-wrenching as these tragedies were, their progress since has been incredibly inspiring. As I walked the streets of these cities, I found them to be true testimonials to the human resolve and resilience!

All in all, it has been a very gratifying and a deeply enriching sabbatical that more or less played out per the plan I shared in a post several months ago. The opportunity helped me grow in many ways than I imagined.

As they say, all good things come to an end… but then, a better one awaits! Today, I am starting a new adventure with RELEX Solutions as the Group Vice President leading Industry Strategy and Product Marketing for the Consumer Packaged Goods & Manufacturing Business Unit. Leading up to my decision to join Relex, I had some very insightful and enriching conversations with Laurence Brenig-Jones , Mette Krogh , Michael Gylling , Mikko K?rkk?inen , Scott Curtiss and Stefano Scandelli to learn more about the company, its place in the market, and the company culture. (By the way, some of these wonderful folks happen to be ex-colleagues I will be reuniting with!). Besides the exciting investments Relex is making to grow its CPG & Manufacturing portfolio, what drew me in is the unique culture of the company. Especially the emphasis on treating colleagues and customers as friends is something I personally find very energizing! After all, we spend a good chunk of our waking hours with our colleagues and customers. We might as well make it fun.

I am super excited to be embarking on this new adventure, changing the pace from my sabbatical, and mixing things up a bit. Look forward to meeting with my new colleagues and making more new friends for life!