The Board of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has announced the appointment of Krishna Kumar Thakur as Director of Human Resources on July 4, 2023.

In his new role at the public sector engineering and manufacturing enterprise, Thakur brings 25 years of holistic and hands-on experience in handling HR matters and administration acquired while serving in the Indian Railways, as well as other Central Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).

Before joining the BHEL Board, Thakur led the HR and Administration function of Central Railway as Chief Personnel Officer. Additionally, in his well-established career in Railways and other PSUs, he headed the HR departments of three important Railway divisions, namely Solapur, Bhopal, and Mumbai, covering all HR matters for the thirty-five thousand staff of the Mumbai Division. While serving as the Chairman of the Railway Recruitment Cell, Western Railway, he successfully recruited around twelve thousand employees.

He also contributed to secondment with RITES while working on a foreign project of Train Operation in Saudi Arabia, which was critical in the issuance of work visas (IQAMA), procurement of human capital, and efficient management of resources, meeting client satisfaction on strict deadlines. In the past, he also headed the HR department of Konkan Railway Corporation Limited, playing a crucial role in designing and streamlining HR policies and procedures.

On the academic front, Thakur holds a postgraduate degree in Literature from Tilka Manjhi University, Bhagalpur, and completed his Post-Graduate Diploma in Management with a specialization in Human Resources (PGDMHR) from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). He is also a 1998 batch officer of the Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS).

As an HR professional, Thakur is credited with maintaining cordial industrial relations and fulfilling corporate responsibilities, as well as making long-term systemic improvements for corporate and government functioning from an overall organisational perspective.