Mohan Kannegal, CEO, India and APAC, Emeritus
The Job
I am the CEO for India & APAC at one of the world’s largest edtech companies. My job is to enable working professionals to stay professionally relevant via upskilling. I do this by leading a team which partners with the best universities in the world, creates professionally relevant online courses and markets them to students across Asia.
I am succeeding if I ensure the team meets goals on courses, enrolments, revenues, profits, and investments. I also serve on the company’s Executive Committee where I participate in setting the company’s strategic direction.
The Weekdays
Weekdays involve video calls with senior leaders at universities and with our business leaders. I drive/review business expansion projects; expanding relationships, courses or channels. I am a full partner in prepping my daughter for school and in walking the dog. I spend at least two hours with my daughter every evening. I am trying to increase the time I spend talking to my wife, I am not doing so well on that front yet.
The Weekend
Weekends are very much family time. As a family, we are trying breakfast or baking experiments, watching TV together and dropping/picking up my daughter from her different classes. My wife and daughter love video games and board games so we do some of that. I occasionally try my hand at drumming. We meet friends for lunch or dinner quite often.
My relaxation time is when I am reading or walking in our backyard garden.
The Toys
My big indulgences are my daily walk, listening to podcasts, reading books and writing well-crafted LinkedIn posts. I listen to podcasts on a variety of topics: Hinduism, India’s defence, India’s startup scene, US stock market, world affairs etc. I enjoy comparing random macro-numbers; like the amount of money big US companies are investing in AI compared to the size of the Indian Govt budget. I enjoy watching Netflix movies in languages I am not familiar with. I also wrote my first book a couple of years ago.
The Logos
I am fond of my company, Emeritus. We have remained professional and transparent, even as we have grown big. I have always admired NRN and Infosys; for building a large global company despite starting off in the most challenging business.