When industries transform, some voices rise above the noise. They don’t just echo trends; they create them. In talent acquisition, these are the voices that guide organisations through disruption, spark innovation, and illuminate the path toward the workforce of the future.
The People Matters Talent Acquisition Conference 2025 (PMTAC’25) is where these voices converge. This year’s theme, “Rewire or Retire: Talent Readiness in the Modern Workplace”, sets the tone for bold conversations and sharper questions about the future of hiring. This is not just a conference. It’s a constellation of ideas, where each voice is a star shining a different light on what comes next.
The New North Stars of Talent
The stage at TAC’25 is designed for leaders who are more than observers, they’re architects of the future. From CHROs steering billion-dollar enterprises to innovators disrupting HR tech, these speakers are not only navigating change but reshaping it.
This year’s stellar lineup includes:
Richard Lobo, Chief People Officer, Tech Mahindra – A pioneer of future-ready people practices in India’s tech ecosystem.
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Varadharaju Janardhanan, CHRO, Super Money (Flipkart Group) – A strategist blending startup agility with enterprise depth.
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Naveen Kumar, Head of People Experience, Licious – Redefining how culture and employee experience build brand identity.
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Sumit Premi, Global Head of TA, Razorpay – Driving fintech’s rapid rise with agile, sustainable hiring.
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Himanshu Ojha, Head of TA, Amazon India Ops & CS – Insights from one of the world’s most complex recruitment engines.
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Swati Rustagi, VP, Employee Experience, Adobe – Championing the human side of digital innovation.
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Ankit Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Unstop – Reimagining how organisations engage with early talent.
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Niket G, Head of TA & Campus, Myntra – Bridging generational aspirations with business strategy.
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Ritu Bhatia, Head of Recruitment, Genpact – Leading global-scale talent operations with precision and reach.
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Sowmya Santhosh, CHRO, CitiusTech – At the intersection of healthcare, people, and technology.
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Mohan Kumar, Head of TA, Intuit – Driving agility and creativity in tech hiring.
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Charles Godwin, HR Leader & Speaker, Zoho – Known for disruptive yet deeply human people practices.
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Gautam Shetty, Regional APAC Head of TA, Maersk – Architecting talent pipelines across continents.
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Vipul Mehrotra, Head of Recruitment, Swiggy – Redefining hiring in consumer-tech and gig economies.
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Gunja Singh, Global Talent Partner—Leadership Hiring, HPE – Unlocking the complexities of leadership recruitment.
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Debleena Das, Head of Talent Strategy, InMobi – Crafting talent ecosystems for a digital-first world.
And many more, each bringing a unique perspective, from fintech to healthcare, global logistics to consumer-tech, collectively rewriting what it means to attract, engage, and retain talent in 2025. Their experiences are maps. Their failures are compasses. Their visions are telescopes through which we glimpse tomorrow.
A legacy that still echoes
While the stage this year belongs to these experts, their brilliance joins a constellation that has been shining for years. Past editions of the conference have been lit by the likes of Mervyn Dinnen, the globally respected HR and WorkTech analyst, and Krishna Raghavan, Chief People Officer at Flipkart, who showed what it takes to build culture at scale in India’s most competitive digital marketplace. Nupur Nagpal, CHRO at Myntra, who reminded us that fashioning a workforce requires as much creativity as designing a collection, and also Amanpreet Kaur at CRED, who redefined what it means to shape people and culture in a startup that constantly challenges conventions.
And they stood alongside many other changemakers who turned this stage into a launchpad for new ideas whose voices didn’t just fill auditoriums, but also left behind playbooks, ideas, and sparks that continue to ripple outwards.
Why these voices matter more than ever
Today, talent acquisition is not about headcount, it’s about readiness.
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AI is evolving faster than policy.
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Geographies are dissolving into screens.
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Five generations are working side by side.
Work is no longer static, it’s a living experiment. And the leaders at TAC’25 are not here to play safe. They are here to tackle the uncomfortable questions:
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How do we keep AI human?
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How do we make a global team feel like one tribe?
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How do we rewire culture when change never stops?
This is why their voices matter now more than ever.
A building that lasts
Every conference is a building, but only a few are built to last. The People Matters Talent Acquisition Conference 2025, on 22nd August at The Leela Palace, Bengaluru, is one such structure designed not just to host conversations but to create legacies. Within its halls, some of the sharpest minds and boldest visionaries in talent acquisition and beyond will gather to sketch the blueprints of the future of work.