Policybazaar’s PB Partners hires Gandharv Shah as HR leader

PB Partners, the offline distribution arm of Policybazaar, has appointed Gandharv Shah as Head of Human Resources and Training, bolstering its leadership team as it expands its on-ground insurance advisory network.

Shah joins from Aditya Birla Capital Limited, where he held senior HR leadership roles, including overseeing compensation and benefits and leading HR for direct marketing. His appointment comes as PB Partners accelerates expansion across India’s insurance distribution ecosystem.

With more than two decades of experience across banking, financial services and consumer-facing sectors, Shah has previously worked at Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and Hero MotoCorp. His roles have spanned talent management, performance systems, organisational development and workforce strategy.

At PB Partners, Shah will lead recruitment, capability building, performance management frameworks and large-scale training initiatives aimed at improving advisor productivity and engagement. The mandate includes aligning people strategy with business growth as the company strengthens its physical distribution footprint alongside Policybazaar’s digital platform.

PB Partners has been scaling its advisor network to deepen penetration in tier-two and tier-three markets, positioning itself as a hybrid distribution model in India’s competitive insurance sector. Strengthening HR and learning systems is central to sustaining advisor quality and operational consistency at scale.

An alumnus of the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, Shah is known for linking compensation strategy to measurable business outcomes and implementing structured learning interventions across distributed sales networks.

The appointment signals a sharper focus on institutionalising training-led growth and building a resilient talent architecture as PB Partners expands into new geographies and product lines.

As competition intensifies in India’s insurance distribution market, firms are investing more heavily in workforce capability, retention and compliance frameworks. Shah’s experience across regulated financial services environments is expected to support PB Partners’ next phase of structured growth.