Bhavani Parameswar is a senior business leader and advisor with more than three decades of experience spanning global business development, cross-border strategy, public policy, regulatory affairs and institution building. She spent over 35 years with ITC Limited, one of India’s foremost diversified enterprises, and is now an independent consultant and advisor to businesses and mission-driven organizations.

Over a career at ITC spanning India and mostly North America, Bhavani built and led businesses and built distribution across multiple channels across the company’s CPG, Agri, Paperboards, Apparel, Education & Stationery and Technology divisions. She was repeatedly entrusted with mandates where the path had to be made rather than followed: launching new categories, entering highly regulated markets, building businesses from the ground up, forging coalitions across industry and government, and knowing when to exit at peak value.

She has served on the boards of several ITC subsidiaries, including Indivate Inc., Fyve Elements LLC, ITC Infotech USA Inc. and Technico Technologies Inc., and has worked closely with ITC’s business leaders as a trusted counsel across the enterprise.

Bhavani’s work has extended naturally into the U.S.-India corridor and civil society. She has served on the Board Advisory Group of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum and its Food & Agriculture and Trade Committees; on the Board of the U.S.-India Friendship Alliance; and in advisory roles with the Women’s Education Project, Safe Water Network and the American India Foundation’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Council. She is also a member of the India Business Network.

At Athena Infonomics Group, Bhavani brings a career’s worth of judgment on building businesses and institutions in challenging ecosystems; commercial experience and policy fluency; deep networks across business, government and philanthropy on both sides of the U.S.India relationship; and an enduring interest in building institutions that create sustainable economic and social impact.