ArcelorMittal unit names 24-year HR veteran Preethi Panasa HR ops head

ArcelorMittal Global Business & Technologies has appointed Preethi Panasa as Head of HR Operations, bringing 24 years of experience in HR operations, shared services, workforce administration, payroll governance and HR technology to the role. The appointment places a shared-services specialist with multi-country delivery experience at the centre of the steel giant's business and technology arm.

Panasa joins from GMR Group, where she served as Head of HR Operations from June 2025 to October 2026. Her arrival signals continuity for employers weighing how to run payroll, compliance and HR systems at scale: nearly all of her career has been spent inside large shared-services structures rather than in generalist HR roles.

What did Panasa handle at GMR Group?

At GMR, Panasa led HR shared services across a broad portfolio of people processes:

• talent acquisition and recruitment processes
• payroll and workforce administration
• compliance
• learning and development
• HR systems
• workforce planning
• HR digital transformation and operational governance

The scope mirrors the functions most large employers now centralise, and her new role suggests ArcelorMittal Global Business & Technologies is consolidating similar operational levers under one leader.

How deep is her global delivery experience?

Before GMR Group, Panasa spent eight years at Parexel as Senior Manager – Global Shared Services, APAC, from February 2017 to February 2025. She managed HR operations and service delivery across 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, supporting more than 10,000 employees — a service population roughly the size of a large multinational's entire regional workforce.

Her remit at Parexel included employee lifecycle management, payroll coordination, vendor governance, HR systems and stakeholder engagement. She also contributed to Workday and SuccessFactors transformations, alongside process standardisation and automation initiatives aimed at improving service delivery and compliance.

That HRIS migration experience may prove decisive. For HR technology teams, the question raised by such appointments is rarely the platform itself but whether standardised processes and automation can hold up across jurisdictions and compliance regimes.

Where did she build her operational foundation?

Panasa spent 12 years at Deloitte, from January 2005 to January 2017, as a Senior Analyst. Her responsibilities covered HR reporting, onboarding coordination, staffing analytics, offer management and workforce data administration. She also worked on governance frameworks, process controls and service-level performance across healthcare and life sciences operations.

Earlier, she served as Team Lead at Satyam's Nipuna Services, managing operational teams, workflow optimisation, manpower planning and productivity initiatives. She began her career at GE Capital as a Senior Executive, handling revenue cycle management for insurance and healthcare clients.

What qualifications does she bring?

Panasa holds a postgraduate qualification in human resource management from Pondicherry University and a Master of Hospital Management from the Apollo Institute of Hospital Management.

Her track record spans HR service delivery, compliance, process automation and workforce administration, with a consistent focus on standardising processes and improving operational efficiency across large organisations. That profile points to a mandate at ArcelorMittal Global Business & Technologies built around consolidation, automation and measurable service performance in HR operations.