BlackRock’s Country Head for India Leads with Heart, Connectivity and Caliber
Meet Pravin Goel, a Managing Director and the Country Head for India. Since joining BlackRock in 2012, his tenure at the firm has comprised a wide range of responsibilities and experience in leadership roles, including sitting on several key committees, like the India Executive Committee, APAC (Asia-Pacific) Executive Committee and Global DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Steering Committee. Read on to learn more about Pravin’s career, passion for innovation and leadership style, as well as the unique One BlackRock culture he fosters in the Mumbai, Gurgaon and Bangalore offices.
Tell us about your career journey, including how you became BlackRock’s Country Head for India.
I have a deep passion for technology and started my career 25 years ago building device drivers for Windows CE applications – which were similar to the mobile phone apps of today! I then moved into tech consulting for business clients in the U.S., U.K. and India, working across various industries until I realized that I wanted to be more involved in finance. I grew up in Delhi and love living here, so when the Royal Bank of Scotland decided to open offices in Gurgaon, it was perfect for me, and I ended up running its investment risk technology in India.
That experience ultimately helped me land a role building and scaling BlackRock’s engineering presence in Gurgaon. I started working closely with the Business Operations team and when the position of Head of Business Operations became available, I raised my hand. I was excited to expand my role and career to include both technology and operations.
Give us a flavor of your role as the Country Head for India.
I would say the role is one of “HCC” – heart, connectivity and caliber.
Heart: I am committed to the One BlackRock culture, which for me includes sponsoring employee networks, embracing diversity of people and perspectives, and valuing the unique community we’ve built. BlackRock India is a massive operation, with more than 2,500 people across three offices in Mumbai, Gurgaon and Bangalore. Many global leaders see my role as being the eyes and ears for their teams here; that fiduciary aspect is probably the biggest component of my job.
Connectivity: I try to foster connection with the rest of the firm – helping my colleagues here in India partner globally, understand functional priorities and connect across different verticals. Through that, we’re able to strengthen the spirit of innovation at the firm. That level of connectivity requires me to cascade down what’s going on globally, and vice versa, bubble-up relevant aspects from India to our partners around the world.
Caliber: My focus on caliber is about maintaining high standards of operations – engaging in operating events that happen in a business of our scale and complexity, ensuring appropriate local and global compliances are met, preparing for contingencies and business continuity, and representing us well in the communities where we operate.
How does the firm support your passion for tech in this broader role?
BlackRock offers its own ‘Academies,’ which provide learning content across a variety of topics created by and for BlackRock employees. Our Tech Academy is particularly amazing, and BlackRock has arguably one of the best teams on the planet when it comes to investment technology. My passion over the last 5 years has been in artificial intelligence (AI), and I have completed many courses related to AI-driven investing, computer vision, natural language processing and advanced Tensorflow, an open-source platform for machine learning.
For someone who grew up as a software engineer, the AI domain can be a challenging shift – from training the machine on every detail to letting it learn itself without making it easy for you to know what it learned!
You are part of many global networks and committees at BlackRock. What has that experience been like?
I’m passionate about mental health advocacy and advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the way I had previously thought about mental health – I realized it is an urgent global issue and became a founding member of BlackRock’s Global Mental Health Steering Committee. Our objective is to normalize the conversation around the topic and reduce the stigma – and it can be particularly impactful when senior leaders are visibly involved. We now have more than 50 mental health ambassadors in our India offices and have been named a Gold employer in the India Workplace Equality Index.
From a DEI perspective, breaking down myths about Asians is an issue that’s really important to me. We have proactively developed tailored programs for our APAC offices, such as our “Listening Circles” and “Courageous Conversations,” which serve as dedicated safe spaces where individuals are encouraged to express themselves openly and honestly. Through these programs, we aim to foster a supportive environment that promotes dialogue, understanding and the sharing of diverse perspectives.
Can you share what BlackRock is doing for communities in India?
Over the years, we have partnered with organizations such as Village Capital, Pyxera, the Center for Digital Financial Inclusion, Generation, the American India Foundation – and so many of our employees have contributed with their financial and technical strengths towards the firm’s mission of helping more and more people experience financial well-being. Our Financial Inclusion Team (FIT), an employee-led impact network at the firm, is specifically focused on this notion. Over time, our dedication and efforts have empowered numerous members of our community to gain a deeper understanding of their financial situations and seize control of their monetary well-being.
The India chapter of BlackRock’s Hallac Scholarship Program has also established a partnership with Lady Shriram College, which has allowed us to expand our outreach to local communities of diverse backgrounds. That involvement has been a personally life-changing experience for many of us.
What is the culture like at BlackRock’s India offices?
Our culture is rooted in our purpose and principles, and the care embedded within these – which requires a lot of intentionality, consistency and ownership. For example, the culture at BlackRock is intentionally not owned by Human Resources alone; the committee that works to enrich the experience of our employees has representation from across functions and geographies, including India.
The entrepreneurial and innovative spirit of our firm and office is fostered through things like BlackRock’s global Hackathon, in which our local colleagues are heavily engaged. In the most recent Hackathon, about 40% of all ideas came from teams in India! And this year the winner of the global Hackathon was the India and Japan Team. We also have a huge focus on learning and sharing information with each other, which we see come to life with the BlackRock Learning League – a self-organized, ground-up effort to gamify learning and link it to real-world problems.
What advice would you give to those starting their careers, especially at BlackRock?
First: No job is too small. Do every job as if it is the most important job in the world because for you, at the time, it really is. As a senior leader in our San Francisco office says: “Own something and do it well.”
Second: Have faith that your career will work out well while working hard to achieve your dreams. Faith is the antidote to the stresses of the increasingly ‘VUCA’ (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world.
Finally: Take full ownership of your communication – with an emphasis on being a good listener while keeping in mind the importance of speaking up.
Interested in joining Pravin and his colleagues in India? Check out open roles in Mumbai, Gurgaon and Bangalore here.