Simin Askari is a seasoned people and business leader with over three decades of experience across diverse industries, including manufacturing, media, technology and diversified conglomerates. Her professional journey reflects a rare integration of commercial acumen, strategic HR leadership and organisation-wide transformation, anchored in a deep belief that sustainable business success is achieved when people, purpose and performance move together.
An Economics graduate with a Master’s degree in Business Management, Simin began her career with reputed organisations such as HCL and The Times of India. She embarked on an entrepreneurial journey before returning to the corporate world holding a senior leadership role within the Apollo Group, where she headed Human Resources for Apollo International Ltd., the diversified businesses of parent company, Apollo Tyres. These experiences built a strong foundation in managing complexity, scale and multicultural workforces.
In her last corporate assignment as Group CHRO and Head – Business Excellence at DS Group, Simin led strategic HR and business excellence initiatives for a ₹10,000 crore, multi-business conglomerate. Her mandate spanned organisation design, leadership capability building, policy and process standardisation, performance management and large-scale digital transformation of people and business processes. She played a pivotal role in strengthening organisational capabilities, improving operational efficiencies and embedding governance, consistency and fairness across diverse businesses.
Simin’s leadership philosophy is grounded in systems thinking and leadership accountability. She views culture as the organisation’s operating system and engagement as an outcome of leadership behaviours, transparent processes and meaningful growth opportunities—not as standalone initiatives. By designing robust frameworks for performance, development and rewards and by introducing digital interventions across HR and business processes, she has consistently focused on creating resilient, high-performance organisations.
Beyond her corporate roles, Simin is an active contributor to the broader HR and leadership ecosystem. She serves on advisory boards of professional and academic institutions, is associated with NHRDN, the Delhi Management Association and CII HR & IR committees, and has also chaired the CII Western UP HR & IR Committee. She regularly mentors young professionals and future leaders, reflecting her commitment to building leadership capacity beyond organisational boundaries.
Simin’s contributions have been widely recognised. Her accolades include the Women Super Achiever Award (2010 Global HR Excellence Awards), Women Leadership Award (2014), recognition as one of the Great Yodhas of Indian HR (2017), and her recent felicitation among India’s top HR leaders at the Fortune Leadership Awards 2025, as well as being named in the Hall of Fame amongst the Top 100 Global HR professionals of 2025 by HR Today.
Today, Simin engages as a Board and Executive Advisor, partnering with organisations and leadership teams on people strategy, organisation effectiveness, business excellence and digital transformation. She brings a practitioner’s depth, a system leader’s perspective and a strong governance mindset to help organisations build sustainable, future-ready enterprises.