Cognitive Talent Partners Appoints Head of U.S. Operations
July 27, 2020 – Gurgaon, Haryana-headquartered executive search firm Cognitive Talent Partners has named Abba Manchanda as a partner and head of U.S. operations.
“Abba’s entrepreneurial background and global sales experience will be a tremendous asset to our business globally,” said Anuj Dhawan, founder and managing partner of Cognitive Talent Partners. “Her breadth of experience – not only having built a recruiting practice from the ground up in New York but also as VP of sales with VistaJet – means that she brings a strong understanding of our clients’ business and needs to her new role. Culturally and professionally, Abba will be a great fit in our executive search team,” he said.
In her new role, Ms. Manchanda will work closely with the Cognitive Talent Partners team in continuing to build the firm’s retained executive search presence in the U.S. and around the world. She will be based in New York but will split her time between the firm’s clients in the U.S. and other global markets.
“I am honored by the opportunity to join Cognitive Talent Partners, steered by visionary founders,” said Ms. Manchanda. “Leading the team’s U.S. operations is an exciting responsibility and one that I am well-equipped to accomplish, given my many years of experience working with high-profile executives. I am confident that my expertise, combined with the firm’s global capabilities and talented team, will result in continued growth and success.”
Ms. Manchanda previously served as vice president of sales at VistaJet, a private jet charter, private jet hire and chartered jet flights corporation disrupting the private jet lending space. In this role, she worked with entrepreneurs and corporations globally to drive sales and scale up the business. Ms. Manchanda began her career at Wall Street in sales and trading at a leading corporate investment bank. In 2009, she co-founded her own business, Micky London, working closely with C-suite executives of marquee retailers such as Amazon, Target, Forever21 and QVC, to name a few.
Serving PE Funds
Mr. Dhawan, former director and partner at Positive Moves Consulting, an angel investor in a Seattle-based healthcare IoT business, launched Cognitive Talent Partners in 2017. The firm provides executive search services to private equity funds, banks, consumer lending clients and global technology corporations. Mr. Dhawan said he started the business to deliver qualified candidates to some of the world’s largest global private equity funds for portfolio companies, Asian business groups and global Indian business corporations across sectors. The firm recently established its first European office to cover customer relationships in the region.
Last year, the firm added former CHRO Ajay Bakshi as senior client partner. Mr. Bakshi is a CEO /CXO-level executive coach, board-level human resources professional and strategic business advisor. With more than 25 years of experience, Mr. Bakshi has held senior-level HR and board-level positions as a chief human resources officer with Vodafone Global Services, Prudential Global Services and Sterlite Technologies & Power.
“Ajay has held global positions as head of talent for Prudential U.K. where he was involved in succession planning, design and deployment of assessment centers, career planning for emerging leaders and high potentials,” said Mr. Dhawan. “His wealth of global experience in human resources for powerful global corporations across markets like the U.K. and Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, India and Malaysia) will add immense strategic value to our global customers in executive search and human resources advisory.”
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
