ET Edge India's Impactful CEOs 2025: Defining Leadership for a New India

VMPL
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], December 19: Leadership took centre stage in Mumbai as the ET Edge India's Impactful CEO Conclave 2025 brought together the architects of India's next phase of growth. The conclave concluded as a compelling celebration of leadership that goes beyond scale and profitability--leadership that shapes institutions, influences society, and defines the future.
Over the course of the evening, conversations reflected a clear shift in how leadership is being understood and practiced: where responsibility stands alongside ambition, resilience alongside growth, and purpose alongside performance.
The 2025 edition drew participation from across India's corporate and entrepreneurial landscape, with over 500 nominations received from diverse sectors and business stages. This depth and diversity underscored the breadth of leadership powering India's growth story. A rigorous evaluation process followed, guided by a distinguished jury comprising Dr. Anil Lamba (Finance Educator & Author), Kiran Karnik (Former President, NASSCOM), Mohan Tanksale (Former CEO, Indian Banks' Association), Rekha M. Menon (Former Chairperson, Accenture India), and Suresh Narayanan (Former Chairman & Managing Director, Nestle India). The jury identified leaders whose impact extends beyond business outcomes to include values-driven decision-making, ethical leadership, and a sustained commitment to the wider ecosystem.
The conclave featured a series of insightful addresses that added depth and perspective to the leadership discourse. C.P. Gurnani, Co-Founder & Vice Chairman of AIONOS, highlighted the human core of leadership, observing, "Our job is to build relationships. Purpose matters more than slogans." Actor and motivational speaker Ashish Vidyarthi reflected on reinvention and curiosity, reminding leaders that "in organisations, it is people who ignite ideas--discovery is critical, and sharing it is equally important." Bringing a deeper philosophical lens to the conversation, Madan Sundar Das of ISKCON spoke about trust as a leadership cornerstone, noting that "many of our biggest challenges arise not from a lack of knowledge, but from a lack of trust."
The awards recognised leadership across scale, sectors, and stages of growth. In the Large Enterprise category, CEOs such as Ashishkumar Chauhan (NSE), Sachin K. Gupta (IKS Health), Sandeep Kalra (Persistent Systems), and Tarun Chugh (Bajaj Life Insurance) were acknowledged for steering complex organisations with discipline, operational excellence, and sustained value creation.
Leaders who demonstrated decisive action during moments of transition were also in focus. Turnaround CEOs including A S Lakshminarayanan (Tata Communications), Anuj Kumar (CAMS), and Dr. Sushil Kumar Chaturvedi (Ascend Telecom) were recognised for restoring momentum, strengthening organisational foundations, and navigating critical inflection points. Rising and MNC leaders such as Ambarish Kenghe (Angel One), Kishor Nair (Avaada Energy), Amit Chadha (L&T Technology Services), and Deepak Sharma (Schneider Electric India) were honoured for fast-scaling leadership that aligned global ambition with strong India relevance.
Entrepreneurial leadership formed a significant pillar of the conclave. Trailblazers Amit Goenka (NiFCO) and Rakesh Kaul (Livpure) were recognised for building distinctive, category-defining enterprises. The conclave also celebrated Unicorn, Soonicorn, and Startup CEOs--including Sumit Gupta (CoinDCX), Ankit Agrawal (InsuranceDekho), Avinash Godkhindi (Zaggle), Shashank Sharma (Sunsure Energy), and Beenu Arora (Cyble)--for driving innovation-led growth and redefining markets through bold, future-ready thinking.
As the conclave drew to a close, one idea resonated clearly: the Impactful CEOs of 2025 represent a new leadership archetype. These are leaders who balance vision with responsibility, ambition with ethics, and growth with long-term value creation. Their work reflects a deeper understanding of leadership as stewardship--of organisations, people, and the broader society they serve.
The ET Edge India's Impactful CEO Conclave 2025 articulated a leadership compelling leadership conversation for India Inc. at a pivotal moment. One where purpose, collaboration, and innovation are not aspirations but essentials--and where true impact is measured not only by success today, but by the legacy shaped for tomorrow, for a new India.
About ET Edge:
ET Edge an Initiative of The Times Group is India's largest conference and thought leadership company. Since its inception in 2015, ET Edge has been at the forefront of creating unique thought leadership initiatives with the objective to empower multiple sectors, industries, and segments by dispersing critical business knowledge through strategically developed specialized conferences and summits.
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